


i don't wanna die twice (it wasn't very fun the first time)

by Dinosaur1212



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Fluff and Angst, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Might throw in an interesting twist if I'm feeling it, Who doesn't love slowburn, josie is a pyro never forget, oops they share a bed, penelope is oblivious and in denial, reluctant friends to highkey close friends to lovers, there's minor mentions of death/divorce/and homophobia, what if they ~held hands~
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2020-12-28 22:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21144140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dinosaur1212/pseuds/Dinosaur1212
Summary: It was the first day of school and Penelope was trapped in the principal's office getting her schedule and listening to Principal Saltzman tell her about the school. She honestly wasn't paying any attention until the end of his whole spiel."Now, my daughter Josie will be showing you around today in order to make sure you know where everything is," Alaric explained to Penelope."I don't think that's necessary, I'm sure I can find everything by myself," Penelope was quick to reply. She didn't want to endure the possibility of socializing with someone, especially when she planned on making zero friends during this last year of high school.ORthe one where Penelope is new to Mystic Falls





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! So I originally intended for this to be a one shot but it's becoming a multi chapter fic, which is slightly concerning to me, because if my other fic I have going on. But fear not, I will work to make sure both get updated! Anyways, this fic was slightly inspired by the song "Friendly Neighborhood Poltergeist," which is honestly becoming a bop for me. So take a listen if you want. Now, on with the story!

People usually have walls up for a reason. They close themselves off from people, refusing to let them in. There are numerous reasons as to why people do this, one of the more common reasons resulting from a heartbreak. When Penelope Park had her heart broken, she vowed that she would never let someone get as close to her as her ex had. She couldn't deal with the risk of having her heart broken ever again. So when her mom told her that they were moving because she got a new job, Penelope was happy to hear that she would be attending Mystic Falls High School in the fall, Penelope was content knowing that no one there would know her. She could start completely fresh, and make sure no one would know anything about her, and in turn, she wouldn't know anything about anyone there. There was just one problem that Penelope wasn't prepared to encounter, and that was Josie Saltzman.

\---------------------------------------------------------------

It was the first day of school and Penelope was trapped in the principal's office getting her schedule and listening to Principal Saltzman tell her about the school. She honestly wasn't paying any attention until the end of his whole spiel.

"Now, my daughter Josie will be showing you around today in order to make sure you know where everything is," Alaric explained to Penelope.

"I don't think that's necessary, I'm sure I can find everything by myself," Penelope was quick to reply. She didn't want to endure the possibility of socializing with someone, especially when she planned on making zero friends during this last year of high school.

Alaric sighed before replying, "Well, it's too late for that, my daughter is already outside waiting to show you around. You two happen to have the same schedules, so it works out that she can be your guide." Standing up, he walked over to his door, and opened it, before Penelope had a chance to reply. "Josie, I'm all done talking to Ms Park, you can show her around now," Alaric said, as he was looking out of his office to the bench that was right by it.

Penelope stood up, grabbed her schedule, and walked out of Dr Saltzman's office, completely unamused that she was going to have to be shown around. She was grateful when Dr Saltzman went back into his office, that way she could tell his daughter that she didn't need some stupid tour. She turned her attention to the bench, where she was sitting, but before she could say anything, Josie started talking.

"Hey, I'm Josie, which I guess you already knew. We should probably start heading towards our homeroom and your locker. I just want to say that I'm not usually the one showing new kids around, that's usually my sister. But since you and I have the same schedules, it made more sense for me to show you around, so I'm sorry if I mess up along the way or something," Josie said at a rapid rate. She was incredibly nervous to be showing a new student around, and it definitely didn't help when the new student was super attractive. She stood up and waited for Penelope to say something before they would start walking.

Penelope looked at Josie and made a mental note that she was pretty, not that she would ever do anything about it. Realizing they weren't moving until she said something, Penelope said, "I really don't need a tour if you don't want to give me one." With that, Penelope started walking away from Josie.

"My dad will kill me if I don't give you one," Josie said, as she briskly walked to catch up with Penelope, placing a hand on the shorter girl's shoulder in order to stop her. 

Turning to face Josie, Penelope said, "I'll be fine. We have the same classes, and if I'm not in one you can always hunt me down if you wish to. But I'll be there, don't worry, you'll be fine." With that, Penelope took Josie's hand off her shoulder, and started walking away, looking at the signs on the wall to get to her homeroom. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't hard to find where her homeroom was, and as she was walking into it, she noticed Josie coming down the hall behind her. 

When she turned to look in the room, she internally groaned as she noticed there were only two empty seats left. That meant she had to sit next to Josie who would probably insist on walking her to her next class. Walking towards the one desk, she sat down and started messing around on her phone so that no one would talk to her. She saw Josie sit down next to her out of the corner of her eye , and was thankful when Josie turned to talk to someone next to her. However, it didn't take long for Josie to turn to her and say something.

"You're not allowed to be on your phone. It's a school rule," Josie said to Penelope, motioning towards her phone.

Penelope looked up at Josie and rolled her eyes, before replying in a hostile tone, "And I don't really give a fuck." She partially regretted her tone when she saw the hurt look flash across Josie's face, but she couldn't do anything about it now.

Josie breathed in a shaky breath before telling Penelope, "I'm only telling you, because our homeroom teacher is very strict about phones. I just didn't want you to get in trouble on your first day, but I guess that was a pointless goal." She turned away from Penelope, and continued talking to who she was before she spoke with Penelope.

Glancing down at her phone, and then back up at Josie, Penelope decided to put her phone away, because as much as she didn't care about school, she didn't want to get in trouble. That would only cause her mother to talk to her, and Penelope really didn't want to endure that. 

Homeroom went by quickly; it was really only the teacher handing out a bunch of different papers that needed to be filled out. When the bell rang, Penelope glanced at her schedule and saw that she had Geography next. Based on the room and wing number, Penelope figured out that it was in the same hallway as her homeroom, so she took off to her class. 

When she got there, she made sure to sit in a desk towards the back of the room. She assumed that this would be a safe place to sit, because Josie seemed like the type of student who would sit in the front of the room. Unfortunately, she soon realized that she was wrong, seeing as Josie sat at the desk in front of her. Penelope noticed that Josie seemed to be sitting near people she was good friends with, because she kept laughing at stuff they said. For a brief moment, Penelope thought about how nice Josie's laugh was, but she quickly shook the thought away. 

Geography passed by quickly, without Josie even trying to say anything to Penelope. Almost the rest of the day went by pretty smoothly, Penelope found all of her classes by herself, and she even managed to ditch lunch and hide out in the school auditorium. The one thing she did notice, however, was that Josie always seemed to sit near her in her classes, and Penelope had no clue why. There was only one class left for the day, and that's where things went awry from the smooth day Penelope was having. 

Literature tended to be Penelope's favorite subject, so she was looking forward to her last class of the day more than any of her other ones. It was just a subject that came naturally to her, and she always did well in it. Of course, Josie sat near Penelope, but that isn't where Penelope's perfect day hit a snag. The snag came from when the teacher grouped the students together in order to do a sort of icebreaker activity. The activity entailed asking how your partners summer went, and then you were supposed to share with the class what you discovered. Penelope had been paired up with this girl that was sitting next to her. 

"Hey, I'm Hope, Hope Mikaelson," the girl, Hope, said to Penelope, extending her hand.

Penelope took her hand and shook it as she said "And I'm Penelope Park." Penelope noticed that Hope seemed to be studying her, but she didn't have a chance to make a comment before Hope was speaking again.

"I'm new here, so I guess what I did this summer was move to Mystic Falls from New Orleans. That's about all I did honestly. Other than break up with my boyfriend Rafael," Hope revealed before asking Penelope, "What about you? What did you do this summer?"

"I'm also new here. I moved her from just outside of Pittsburgh," Penelope told Hope, before deciding to share her relationship experience since Hope did, "I also went through a breakup this summer. I broke up with my girlfriend, Liv, this summer. I found out she had cheated on me, and all my friends knew. They just didn't tell me." She briefly noticed that Josie glanced back her way at what she said, but she chose to not make eye contact.

"That's really awful. Like, they should've told you about that," Hope said, a serious expression on her face. 

Penelope just nodded and said, "Yeah, it really sucked."

Suddenly Hope laughed, before saying, "Look at us. Two new students here, and we both happen to be heartbroken. Guess it just wasn't our summer."

For the first time since moving to Mystic Falls, Penelope realized that maybe having a friend wouldn't be such a bad idea to get through the year. Especially when it was someone who was probably in the same mental place as her. "We should start our own club or something, and call it 'The Heartbroken and New Student Club,'" Penelope suggested, starting to laugh as she spoke. 

"Well, you can definitely be president, considering it was your idea. I'll gladly be your vice president though," Hope offered up as an idea. 

The teacher interrupted them, before Penelope could say anything in response, because it was time to present what everyone had learned. Class went by extremely slowly as everyone shared what their partner had done over the summer, but it was eventually Hope and Penelope's turn.

Both girls stood up, but it was Penelope who spoke first, "This is Hope, and she's a new student from New Orleans, who also happened to get her heart broken by some guy before she moved." She looked over at Hope who was starting to speak. 

"Well, my partner is Penelope, and she also happens to be a new student here, and similarly to me, she also had her heart broken, but it was by some low-life girl," Hope shared, turning to give a thumbs up to Penelope.

They both sat down and tried to refrain from laughing, as everyone in the class looked uncertain what to do. Fortunately, most of them were spared, as the teacher told the next group to go, which consisted of Josie and some boy that Josie revealed to be named MG. Penelope partially listened to what MG had to say about Josie, and he talked about how Josie had spent the summer in Mystic Falls with her dad, while her sister was off traveling with their mom. Penelope made sure to make a mental note that Josie seemed to get the short end of the straw in that situation, before zoning out for the rest of the class.

It was when the bell rang that Hope decided to ask Penelope as they walked, "Listen, I know we just met, but do we think we could meet sometime?" She went on to explain herself by saying, "It would just be really nice to talk to someone about my breakup, and I figured maybe you could talk about yours if you wanted to."

"Yeah, we could definitely hang out a day. Tonight won't work for me though, my mom's going to want to hear how school went and stuff like that," Penelope answered her, as they arrived at her locker. 

Hope stopped for a second and said, "Same goes for me. Let me give you my number so we can coordinate a day." She opened her notebook and quickly scribbled a number on it, before tearing it out and handing it to Penelope. "There you go. I'll see you tomorrow," Hope said as she walked away.

Penelope turned to open her locker, but not before noticing Josie staring at her. Choosing to if ore it, Penelope opened her locker and got her bookbag out of it, before closing it and turning around to Josie standing in front of her.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for trying to insist on giving you a tour today," Josie hesitated before adding, "And I'm sorry to hear about what Liv did to you, that was shitty of her. And I'm sorry that I was eavesdropping, I didn't mean to." Josie turned her head when she heard her name being called by her sister. She turned her attention to Penelope and said, "Looks like Lizzie is ready to go. I guess I'll see you tomorrow," and with that she disappeared down the hall, leaving Penelope standing there.

Penelope was confused by Josie's initial apology about the tour, because Josie really hadn't pushed a tour. And then there was the bizarre apology about Penelope's ex, it really didn't make sense to her. She guessed that Josie must just be one giant mystery that she fortunately wouldn't learn to understand.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with the second chapter of this fic! I plan on alternating which fic I update, so the next update for this one will come after I update the other one I'm writing. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to maintain my semi-quick rate of updating

Penelope took her time going home, because she knew her mom wouldn't be home yet, and she really didn't want to be in an empty house. When she got home, she unlocked the door and went up to her room to think about her day. She had started the day determined to keep to herself, and now she had the beginning of a friendship and whatever it was she had going on with Josie. Laying down in her bed, she shook all thoughts of Josie out of her head, unsure if why the brown haired girl had popped into her thoughts. She decided to distract herself by putting Hope's number into her phone and sending her a text.

**Penelope: **Hey, this is Penelope from English class. Just thought I would text so you had my number.

She set her phone back down not expecting a reply, but she felt her phone go off, revealing a text from Hope.

**Hope: **How sweet, you want me to have your number.

**Penelope: **Remind me to choose my words carefully around you.

**Hope: **No promises. But we should pick a day to hang out and talk. Does Saturday work for you?"

**Penelope: **Yes it does. We can pick meeting places and times the closer we get to Saturday.

**Hope: **Sounds good to me!

And that was the start of how Penelope ended up texting Hope for half an hour, before she drifted off to sleep. Penelope had always had trouble sleeping at night, which is what caused her to nap from time to time. Her inability to sleep had been worse since Liv broke up with her, but Penelope had managed to hide her struggle well. There was just something about the nighttime that Penelope found soothing. She attributed it to the darkness as it allowed for things to be hidden,and Penelope was a master of hiding things. 

"Hey sweetie, wake up," Penelope's mom said, gently shaking her daughter's shoulder to get her to wake up. 

"W-What?" Penelope questioned, before blinking a couple times and learning her bearings. She looked up at her mom who was still in her room and asked, "What time is it?"

Penelope's mom stood up straight again, crossing her arms, as she said, "It's a little after five-thirty. I had sent you a text saying I was running a little late, but I'm guessing you didn't read it.

Sitting up in her bed, Penelope replied, "I didn't. I don't know what happened, I just fell asleep." Penelope couldn't even remember feeling tired that she would've fallen asleep, but then again, she had slept maybe four hours at most last night.

"I could've guessed as much," Penelope's mom joked, before saying, "It's time to eat. I stopped and bought some takeout on my way home from work."

Penelope glanced at her phone to see she had a text from her mom and one from Hope, before answering her mom, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Good, because you know I have questions about how your first day of school went,” Penelope's mom said as she walked back downstairs to the kitchen.

Knowing there was no way she could avoid the barrage of questions she would be facing, Penelope climbed out of bed and followed after her mom.

————————————————————

The next day at school, Penelope was still thinking over all the questions her mom had asked her last night. She had seemed to pick up on the fact that Penelope had potentially made a friend, and was excited to hear that she would be hanging out with Hope on Saturday. Penelope knew her mom meant well, because Penelope had been closed off since her breakup, and she was thankful that her mom was there for her.

Penelope was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts in homeroom when someone came into the room practically yelling. When she looked up, she saw that it was someone who was talking to Josie.

“Lizzie, just calm down. I’m sure everything will blow over soon,” Josie told her sister, in an attempt to calm her down.

Lizzie just rolled her eyes before loudly replying, “Whatever you say Jo. I don’t know how you could possibly know, especially since all you ever do is avoid the possibility of popularity.”

Josie clenched her jaw at Lizzie’s comment, but didn’t say anything in response as she sat down at her desk beside Penelope. She glanced at Lizzie as she went and sat with her friends, before directing her gaze on her desk.

Penelope watched all of this happen, quietly formulating her own opinion on the matter. Putting two and two together, she figured out that the girl was probably Josie’s sister, but she definitely didn’t treat Josie with any type of respect. For some reason that bother Penelope more than she would care to admit, but she decided against trying to say anything to Josie. She felt bad for not saying anything to cheer Josie up, but Penelope also knew that she would’ve had no idea what to say to the girl, because they barely knew each other. Before she could even feel more guilty about not saying anything, the bell rang, signaling the start of classes.

It wasn’t until Penelope had lunch that she interacted with Josie. Penelope had gone to the auditorium again in order to avoid the noise of the cafeteria, and she was sitting comfortably in the back, practically hidden from sight. She was messing around on her phone when she heard someone enter the auditorium, but she didn’t even spare a glance to see who it was. Plus, whoever it was, they were up closer to the stage, so trying to interact with them would be pointless anyways. She only looked up when she heard someone start singing, because whoever it was, they were talented. When she looked up, she saw the last person she would’ve expected, Josie Saltzman. Penelope didn’t recognize the song Josie was singing, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

When Josie was done singing, Penelope starting clapping from her seat, knowing it would probably startle Josie, and she was right.

“Who’s there?” Josie cautiously asked, looking towards the source of the clapping. She could see that whoever it was was coming closer, and that’s when she recognized the person as Penelope.

“It’s just me. I thought I would let you know I enjoyed your song,” Penelope replied as she walked closer to the stage. Once she reached it, she looked up at Josie on the stage and said, “I can be cordial when I feel like it.”

Josie was still startled by Penelope presence, because no one had really ever heard her sing before. She only ever sang when she was alone, because that was the only time she felt comfortable. She eventually managed to meekly get out, “I didn’t realize anyone was in here. No one is ever in here during lunch, they always say it’s too cold in here.”

Penelope could tell that Josie was still shaken up, but she proceeded to say, “You’re welcome for the compliment. And I honestly like the cold, that’s why I come here. That, and the silence.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I meant to thank you for the compliment, I just forgot,” Josie was clearly getting flustered, although she accredited it to her embarrassment and nothing further. She went on to say, “I didn’t mean to disturb you though.”

“Trust me, you didn’t disturb anything,” Penelope said, nothing but sincerity in her voice. As much as she didn’t want to get close to anyone, Penelope didn’t think this one conversation with Josie would jeopardize her goal for the year.

Josie paused in thought, before replying, “If you say so. All I ask is that you don’t tell anyone about this. I never sing in front of people.” She moves towards the edge of the stage and sat down, that way her and Penelope were at least semi closer to eye level.

Penelope hoisted herself up onto the stage and sat beside Josie, then replied, “You should sing in front of other people, you’re really talented.” She couldn’t wrap her head around why someone with Josie’s talent would hide it.

“I can’t,” Josie sighed before continuing, “Even if I am as good as you say, I could never. It would take the spotlight off of Lizzie, and she would make me feel awful about it.”

“Well, she needs to get over herself then. You deserve to do something that makes you happy,” Penelope told Josie. Her opinion of Josie's sister was slowing becoming more and more negative as she learned more about how she treated Josie.

Josie stayed silent at Penelope's comment, because no one had ever told her to do something that would make her happy. In fact, people never paid much attention to her, because she always seemed to have a handle on things, whereas her sister struggled on keeping a handle on things. So, she genuinely didn’t know what to say to someone telling her to do what made her happy, but she was spared from having to save something, because the bell rang.

Hopping off the stage, Penelope turned to Josie and said, “I suppose I’ll see you around Saltzman.” She turned, and started heading to her next class, knowing Josie would probably be following her since they had the same class. Penelope just knew that she couldn’t let Josie think they were becoming friends, which is why she didn’t ask Josie to walk with her to class. Had she turned around to look at Josie’s face, she would’ve seen Josie looking extremely disappointed at how Penelope just walked away.

Class went by quickly, and Penelope was glad when Josie didn’t try to strike up a conversation with her during class. As it stood now, Penelope was walking into Literature and was taking her seat; Josie not far behind her.

“I see that we’re not skipping yet,” Hope said, turning her head to look at Penelope.

Penelope rolled her eyes at Hope, before replying, “Bold of you to assume I would ever skip.” As much as Penelope appeared a sif she could care less about school, she secretly took her education seriously, even if senior year was a joke.

Hope mulled over what Penelope had said, because she had assumed Penelope was a frequent skipper. Deciding to drop the topic, she asked, “Do you want to meet at the Mystic Grill on Saturday? Or we could always hang out at my house if you want.”

“We could do both. We could get lunch and then go back to your house to hang out,” Penelope suggested as an option, before the teacher sent her and Hope a death glare. This caused Hope and Penelope to shut up, as they didn’t want to get on the teacher’s bad side so early in the school year.

The topic they were covering in class was one of Penelope’s favorites, satire. She had always been a fan of it, because not everyone could figure out what was being satirized in some stories. So, Penelope listened attentively, trying her hardest to ignore Hope, who kept trying to make side comments to her about the lesson. She also tried to ignore how every now and then Josie would glance back at her, and then quickly look away. She genuinely couldn’t wrap her head around what Josie’s goal was, but then again, it didn’t really matter Penelope reminded herself.

When class finally ended—as well as the school day—Hope gathered her books while saying to Penelope, “I like your idea of going to lunch and then going back to my house afterwards. It’ll be a nice way to get to know one another.”

Penelope smiled slightly at Hope while also collecting her belongings. She went on to reply to Hope with, “Consider it a date for two heartbroken people then.” Her and Hope started walking out of the room towards their lockers, leaving behind—unbeknownst to them—a slightly angry Josie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe Penelope does have a heart after all, even if she isn't letting it show. I hope you guys liked this chapter! Find me on Twitter @posieclown for periodic updates with where I'm at with writing


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a little longer than I intended to write and post, but I'm glad I somehow managed to get this out. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter, as it may have some fun backstory for some of the characters.

The next few days went by in relative normal fashion. Penelope mainly only talked to Hope in English, spending her other classes talking to no one. Sure, Josie had tried to start up a conversation with her, but Penelope never really put much effort into continuing the conversation. She still opted to go to the auditorium over the cafeteria, but she never saw Josie in there the rest of that week. She didn’t know why, but she was kind of disappointed that Josie didn’t come back that week. Fortunately for Penelope, today was Saturday, and she was on her way to meet Hope.

Penelope had decided to walk to the Mystic Grill, because it wasn’t very far from her house, and the day was extremely nice out, so Penelope thought the walk would do her good. It would allow her to clear her mind, and to think about what all she would say to Hope. 

She was lost in thought as she approached her destination, and was startled when she heard a voice behind her.

“Penelope, I’m glad to see you survived your walk,” Hope said as she approached Penelope. She had been surprised when Penelope had said she would walk, but as she was standing outside, she could see why Penelope thought it to be a good idea. 

Penelope had turned when Hope had started talking to her, and at her comment, Penelope rolled her eyes, “Of course I survived. It’s not like I was walking down dark alleyways in the middle of the night. I was just walking through town, in the middle of the day.” Before Hope could respond, Penelope had turned around, and was entering into the Mystic Grill.

Hope followed after Penelope, saying, “You never know when something could happen to you.” She waited for Penelope to say something, but instead, Penelope turned her attention to making sure they got seated. 

When they sat down, Penelope looked up to face Hope in order to say, “I’m assuming we’re saving all the fun personal stuff for when we get back to your house.” Penelope was hoping that was the case, because she really didn’t want to talk about her relationship in the middle of a busy restaurant.

“Of course we are. I don’t want our personal lives being the talk of the town,” Hope answered Penelope, before turning her attention to look at the menu. 

Abandoning the idea of conversation, Penelope also started looking at the menu so they could order when their waiter showed up. Both Penelope and Hope were so invested with deciding on what they wanted, that they didn’t even know the waiter had come to the table until he awkwardly cleared his throat. When they both looked up, they saw that their waiter was MG.

“Hey guys, Welcome to the Mystic Grill. What can I get for you today?” MG asked the two girls, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. 

It was Hope who ordered first, and then Penelope followed suit. When they were done ordering, MG went off to put in their order and bring back their drinks. Once, he brought them their drinks and left, Penelope almost immediately asked Hope, “Did you catch a vibe that he was uncomfortable?”

“No?” Hope answered in partial question, because she truly had not been paying attention to MG’s body language. But Hope could only imagine one reason as to why MG would be uncomfortable, so she said, “He could have appeared that way because he seems to be best friends with Josie. The girl you seemed to go out of your way to avoid this week.”

Penelope looked at Hope, a confused expression on her face as she asked, “What does me avoiding Josie have to do with MG?”

Taking a moment to figure out what to say, Hope eventually said, “Look, Penelope, we haven’t known each other very long, so I don’t want to cross any lines, but you just admitted you’ve been avoiding Josie. The reason as to why you’re avoiding her, who knows. But MG probably doesn’t know how to approach you, because the only person you really seem to talk to at school is me, so to the rest of the school, you probably seem unapproachable.” 

“That was my goal for the year, to get by without much interaction. But then a certain someone had to get involved and convince me to become their friend,” Penelope replied, making sure to stay away from mentioning Josie again. She just didn’t want to be pushed on the matter when it came to Josie, because Penelope didn’t have a real reason for avoiding Josie. 

Hope made a mental note about how Penelope deterred the conversation from Josie, but opted against bringing it back up. Instead, she joked, “Well I’m glad that whoever it was convinced you to be their friend. They must have insane persuasion skills.”

The rest of their time passed by in the same fashion of light conversation. Penelope found it easy to talk to Hope, but not as easy as she had found talking to Josie the other day in school had been. Still, she enjoyed Hope’s presence and her sense of humor. For the most part, MG managed to hide his discomfort for the rest of the time he waite don Penelope and Hope. It wasn’t that he had anything against the two girls, it was just that Penelope was the only thing Josie could talk about all week. He was glad to see Josie was moving on though, because she really hadn’t been this involved with anyone since she had broken up with Landon over a year ago. His only concern was that Josie would end up getting hurt by Penelope, because thus far, it seemed to him that Penelope wasn’t interested in Josie. These thoughts were pushed from his mind shortly after Penelope and Hope left, as the restaurant started getting busy.

Hope had driven to the Mystic Grill, so she drove Penelope to her house so that they could talk. Fortunately, neither of her parents were home, so Hope managed to avoid the mess that would’ve been introducing her new friend to her parents. Once they were situated in Hope’s room, the two girls made small talk until the conversation finally turned more personal.

“So, was Rafael your first boyfriend?” Penelope eventually asked Hope, deciding that she should break the ice and get to the elephant that was in the room. She saw Hope frown at the question, and for a second she worried that maybe she shouldn’t have asked the question, but then Hope started answering her question.

“He was, and he was honestly really great. I genuinely loved him, but he couldn’t deal with how far apart we would be after I moved. Distance just wasn’t his thing I guess, and I accept that, it’s just the way he broke up with me was awful,” Hope paused to take a deep breath, because she could feel her voice getting shaky, before she continued, “The day I left, all I got from him was a text saying we were over, and that was it. I never got anything else from him.” Hope blinked a few times to stop her tears from falling before focusing back on Penelope and asking, “How about you? Was Liv your first girlfriend?”

Penelope narrowed her eyes at Hope, saying, “I see we’re doing back and forth questions, how interesting. But before I answer you, I would like to say that what he did to you was a dick move, and you deserve way better than him. People should have the nerve to break up with you in person, not over texting.” She stopped to think about exactly what she wanted to say before saying, “She was my first official girlfriend, but I had been with a few other people beforehand, just never anything official. Liv was the one to change that. She broke down my walls, and I let her in. I thought what I had with her was real, that it would be the only relationship I would ever need. There were times she would make comments about our future together like five years down the line, but that all changed.” Penelope swallowed, gathered her thoughts, and continued with, “It changed when I caught her making out with this kid named Lucas. I was so hurt by the whole thing, but what really broke me was I found out my friends had known for weeks that it was going on, but none of them cared to tell me. So I was more than thrilled when my mom told me we were moving. It meant I could be far away from those self-absorbed asshats, and I could make sure to not let anyone in. That is, except for you I guess.”

At first, Hope didn’t say anything, because she was genuinely at a loss for words. What had happened to Penelope was awful, and because of it, Penelope made it a goal to shut everyone out. That was something Hope was all too familiar with, because she had shut everyone out for the longest time. That changed when she met Rafael, she slowly let more people in, and she realized that it wasn’t a bad thing to let people in. In fact, it’s sometimes necessary to let people in. Even though Rafel broke up with her, she still believed that it was okay to let people in, because even though those people have a chance to hurt you, there’s the chance that they won’t. Deciding against advising Penelope of this, she instead said, “Wow, that is really awful what she did, as well as your friends, er ex-friends. But I’m glad you decided to at least decide to be sociable with me. Everyone needs a friend, and I can assure you, I won’t be like those ‘self-absorbed asshats.’”

“That’s a bold assumption Mikaelson, but since you’re my trusty vice president of our new club, I’ll hold you to your word,” Penelope said, slightly touched that Hope already seemed to view her as a close friend. 

Hope smiled, “What can I say? My assumption might be bold, but I know it’s true.” Hope paused to think before going on to say, “I know we ditched this topic during lunch, but why are you avoiding Josie?” Ever since Penelope had inadvertently admitted to avoiding Josie, the reason as to why she was, well, it was plaguing Hope’s mind to find out. 

Penelope stared at Hope, taken aback by her question, because she genuinely didn’t have an answer. At least not one she was willing to admit to herself. So she settled for saying, “I’m not really sure why I am, I am just doing it. There’s just something about her that rubs me the wrong way.”

“I’ll trust your instincts then. She just seems like the perfect student, and I guess maybe she’s just too perfect,” Hope said, simply trying to appease Penelope by supplying reasoning for why she was avoiding Josie. Hope had a feeling that it was something more, but she didn’t want to be wrong and end up pushing Penelope away, if she mentioned what she thought her reason was.

“You’re right, and on top of it all, she’s the principal’s daughter. So she really is too perfect,” Penelope said in response to Hope. Penelope was glad that Hope was beginning to things from her point of view. Because to Penelope, she genuinely thought that there was something off about Josie, purely because Josie was so down to earth and genuinely seemed to care about Penelope, even if she really didn’t know her.

The topic quickly changed after that. For the rest of the day, the two girls never mentioned Josie again at all. Instead, they talked about what brought them to Mystic Falls, and what they thought they would be doing after high school. For Penelope, they had moved because her mom got a new job, and after high school, she wanted to attend college back in Pennsylvania. Hope on the other hand had come to Mystic Falls because her parents had wanted to be closer to family. As for college, Hope wasn’t really sure where she wanted to go yet, nor what she would major in, but she was adamant about still having time to decide these two things. They talked about their classes and how they hated that they only had English together. Even though they did share a lunch period, they never interacted since Penelope was always seeking solace in the auditorium. The only problem was that, throughout the day, Josie would pop up in Penelope’s thoughts, and every time she would become lost in her thoughts. So lost that Hope would stop talking until she noticed Penelope was listening, at which point Hope would start talking again. Hope didn’t question where it was Penelope had gone in her mind, instead she didn’t make a single mention of it the entire time they hung out. Eventually, Hope took Penelope home, with the promise to see each other on Monday in English. But sometimes things don’t work out as they were originally intended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have good intentions for the next chapter fear not. However, I'm not sure when I will get to updating it, because I'm swamped with schoolwork right now, and I want to update my other fic after this. If you want to yell at me to update, follow me on Twitter @posieclown


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is honestly one of the longest ones I've ever written, if not the longest, and originally, I never planned for it to be so long. In fact, I had a vague direction for this chapter, but it changed drastically while writing, so I hope you enjoy!

The next day Penelope spent with her mother who was very interested in how Penelope’s meeting with Hope had gone the day before. Penenlope answered all of her mother’s question, because she genuinely did have a good time with Hope yesterday. After a while, Penelope retreated to her room to work on some homework she had put off all weekend. She regretted the decision of putting it off when she got to her calculus homework, because math wasn’t her strong suit. In fact, it was probably one of her worst subjects, even though she did well enough in it. The only person that seemed to truly enjoy math in her class was Josie, and Josie was also the only one to ever answer the teacher in class. In the end, Penelope ended up falling asleep while doing her calculus homework.

Monday morning came all too soon for Penelope when she woke up to find herself still seated at her desk. She could already tell that her body was sore from how she slept and that she would be regretting it. As she was moving around her room getting ready for school, she heard her mom leaving for work. Her mom knew that she really wasn’t a morning person, so she tended to let Penelope alone in the morning. Once she was ready, Penelope left for school, unaware of what the day’s events would bring her. 

Walking into homeroom, she noted that Josie wasn’t there yet, but that soon changed when she heard Lizzie in the hallway. She turned her attention to see Lizzie walking into the room talking to Josie, completely unaware that her twin was on the verge of tears. Penelope was ten feet away and could tell that something was definitely off, but Lizzie was too absorbed in herself that she didn’t even bother to notice how Josie was doing. Frowning, Penelope could feel anger rising in her chest because of this, but she buried it down saying it wasn’t her place to do anything about it. She hadn’t been civil with either one of them really, except for the conversation she had with Josie last week during lunch.Instead of trying to mend that fact now, Penelope turned her attention away from the twins and stared straight ahead, trying not to pay attention to what was happening. She managed to achieve this goal all the way up until lunch.

Of course, during lunch, Penelope once again snuck off to the auditorium in order to be alone with her thoughts. She soon realized that she would be alone long when she heard someone enter, and she looked up to see Josie, but she also saw Lizzie close behind her. They weren’t far from Penelope, so Josie could see and hear everything that was going on. She could still see that Josie was ready to cry, but Lizzie didn’t even acknowledge that fact.

“Jo, I’m not saying that having a date to homecoming is important, but you can’t turn down the hottest guy in school when he asks you to go!” Lizzie exclaimed, not understanding why Josie had turned Ethan down. Of course she had hoped Ethan would ask her out, but that hadn’t panned out for her. And then her sister gets the chance she had been hoping for, and her twin turned it down. Lizzie really couldn’t wrap her head around why that had happened, but she was determined to find out.

Josie turned away from Lizzie not saying anything, hoping Lizzie would just drop it. It seemed to be all Lizzie could talk about to her since it happened. Josie just wanted a break from the constant barrage of questions from her sister, and she thought she was going to achieve that goal when she came into the auditorium, because Lizzie never followed her here. Except for today, that is.

Penelope could sense that things were tense between the two sisters, and that Josie was visibly uncomfortable. Before she could stop herself, she was announcing her presence by saying, “Did it ever occur to you that Josie has the right to say no to something she doesn’t want to do?” She smirked as two sets of eyes landed on her after she spoke. The one thing she noticed right away was the appreciative smile she got from Josie, and for a brief second Penelope felt a warm feeling in her stomach before she heard Lizzie say something.

“And this matter concerns you how? You’ve said what? Three words to my sister?” Lizzie retorted in response to Penelope. 

Narrowing her eyes at Lizzie, Penelope fired back, “The matter genuinely doesn’t concern me, but I tend to defend those who are being attacked by not so nice people.” Penelope smiled in satisfaction when she saw Lizzie grow angrier.

Josie just stood there, not knowing what to do, because even though the conversation was about her, she didn’t know how to insert herself into it. Se instead, she watched Lizzie and Penelope fight back and forth.

“I am nice,” Lizzie angrily stated, before going on, “You’re the one who isn’t nice. You don’t acknowledge anyone in this school except to be rude to them, not counting that new girl Hope. But at least she tries to be nice to everyone.”

Penelope laughed at Lizzie’s comment about her being the one that was mean before saying, “I’m only rude to those who deserve it. Hate to break it to you, but you deserve it. If Josie doesn’t want to go with that guy, I can’t blame her. Guys are gross, especially high school ones.” Penelope stood up to leave, feeling as if she got her point across when Lizzie stormed off, leaving Penelope alone with Josie, which is not how she saw her lunch period going. Rather than say anything, she just stood there silently, partially wishing Josie would follow Lizzie.

“She’s probably going to get our dad you know,” Josie quietly said, just loud enough for Penelope to hear. She shifted nervously, unsure of whether or not she should stay.

“I say let her. I said nothing but the truth, and if that gets me in trouble so be it,” Penelope calmly stated, sitting back down in the chair she had been sitting in, assuming her and Josie were going to talk more.

Feeling brave for once, Josie asked, “Why did you do it? Lizzie was right when she said you’ve barely talked to me, so I don’t get why you defended me like that.” Walking into a row of seats a few rows in front of Penelope, Josie sat down, instantly turning her attention back to Penelope once she did so.

Penelope didn’t say anything at first, instead opting to think about how she really wanted to answer. In the end she explained her reason as, “Sometimes, JoJo, there is no reason, even if I gave Lizzie some random excuse. Honestly, I didn’t even realize I had said anything until it was done coming out of my mouth.” Penelope looked away from Josie in an attempt to ignore whatever the feeling in her stomach was.

Josie stared at Penelope trying to understand her reason before curiously asking another question, “I don’t want to seem annoying, but why do you ignore me and then talk to me like we’re good friends?”

Taken aback by Josie’s question, Penelope was unsure of what to say, but then cautiously admitted, “Because you’re a good person, and I think that Lizzie treats you like shit. I’ve only been here a week, and I already know this, so of course I’ll find any reason to antagonize someone I don’t like.”

Before Josie could say anything, an announcement came over the loudspeaker asking Penelope to report to the principal’s office. Rolling her eyes, Penelope stood up and started walking towards the exit of the auditorium saying, “Looks like it’s time for me to meet my maker.”

“I could go with you and tell my dad that it was just Lizzie overreacting,” Josie offered, standing up and following after Penelope.

Stopping to turn and face Josie, Penelope stated, “I think it’s best I do this alone. I don’t want to be the cause of an even bigger schism between you and Lizze.” And with that, Penelope turned around and started walking away towards the principal’s office.

Once she got to the office, Penelope noted two things: Dr Satlzman was already waiting for her, and Lizzie had a shit-eating grin plastered across her face. Penelope knew she was already in for a lecture no matter what she said.

“Penelope, step into my office please. There’s something we need to discuss,” Alaric calmly said to Penelope. He waited until Penelope was in his office, before saying to Lizzie, “You should get back to lunch, before it’s over,” before entering into his office and going to sit down at his desk. Once he did so, he looked at Penelope and questioned, “I’m sure you know why you’re here, right?”

Trying to maintain a respectful attitude, Penelope explained, “I’m here because I defended your other daughter, Josie, against Lizzie’s pestering by simply telling her the truth. How she interpreted the truth is entirely up to her, but it had to be said.” Penelope leaned back in her chair while she waited for Dr Saltzman to say something. 

Sighing, Alaric took a moment to think about his next sentence before saying, “As it stands, Josie isn’t here to say that that’s what you did, and to be quite honest, there’s probably a nicer way you could’ve spoken to Lizzie.”

Partially regretting not accepting Josie’s request to accompany her, Penelope shot back, “Sometimes there is no nice way to say the truth, Dr Saltzman. I did what I felt was right. And you can always call Josie down and ask her for her version of events if you need to.”

“I know I can call her down here, but I don’t think that will be necessary so long as you apologize to Lizzie,” Alaric countered. A few seconds after he finished his sentence, the bell rang, signalling a change of class.

Penelope was astounded at the request to apologize to Lizzie, because Penelope had done nothing wrong; it was Lizzie who had been in the wrong. At least that's what Penelope’s moral compass told her, which is why she simply replied, “I can’t do that.”

“And why is that?” Alaric inquired, getting slightly annoyed with how Penelope was behaving. 

“Because I did nothing wrong, and if you would just call Josie down here and ask, she would be able to tell you,” Penelope explained, managing to keep her voice void of any anger or frustration.

Realizing he was going to get no where, Alaric conceded, “Alright, I’ll call Josie down here, but when she agrees with Lizzie, you’ll have to apologize then, and maybe go to detention, considering you didn’t listen to what I had said. Now go sit outside my office until I settle things with Josie once I call her and she gets here.” As he said the last sentence, he motioned towards the door signaling Penelope should leave which she did.

Of course when she got outside his office, Lizzie was still sitting there on the bench, so Penelope took much care in sitting on the opposite side of the bench while she waited for whatever came next. Over the loudspeaker, she heard Dr Saltzman call Josie to his office, to which Penelope noticed Lizzie look a little scared at that fact. Penelope didn’t say anything to Lizzie, and was thankful when Lizzie was also silent.

Josie arrived at the office fairly quickly, and when she entered she smiled slightly at Penelope. She was surprised when she had been called down to the office, but nonetheless, she was ready to talk to her father about what had happened, and she entered into his office seconds after she arrived.

Penelope could faintly hear what was going on inside the office, but she made a special effort to tune it out, because a part of her didn’t want to know who Josie would defend. Sure, Josie had offered to defend her, but Lizzie was also her sister, and Penelope would respect if she chose to defend Lizzie. But then again, Penelope reminded herself, she really didn’t care what happened, because she didn’t care about Josie Saltzman. Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen, and she had no control over it. What she wasn’t expecting, however, was the amount of time Josie was talking to Dr Saltzman. Almost all of eighth period was over, and Josie was still in there talking, and Penelope could hear, at times, Josie’s voice getting louder, as if she was getting angry with her father. Finally, moments before the bell rang again for ninth period, Dr Saltzman opened his door and looked out at both Penelope and Lizzie.

“Could you two step inside my office?” Alaric requested, unable to believe that Josie had sided with Penelope, the girl she was constantly saying ignored her existence. It didn’t make sense to him, but he had to go off of what he had been given. Once Lizzie and Penelope were settled in his office, he looked at the three girls and said, “What happened today is unacceptable, especially what you said Penelope. While Josie assures me that none of it was as bad as Lizzie made it sound, there is still no room for how you behaved today. I still expect you to apologize to Lizzie, and Lizzie, you need to apologize to your sister. If she didn’t want to go to homecoming with Ethan, so be it. You can’t bother her about it forever.”

Penelope couldn’t believe that she still had to apologize to Lizzie, because it’s not her fault that the truth hurts. She was about to protest, but Lizzie dramatically interrupted.

“Jo, I guess I’m sorry for not understanding why you would turn down a guy as awesome as Ethan. I am genuinely sorry for the opportunity that you missed,” Lizzie apologized, even though it wasn’t a true genuine apology for what she should have been apologizing for.

Unable to resist the chance to annoy Lizzie further, Penelope commented, “Maybe she already has plans of going with someone else, and that’s why she turned him down.”

“I doubt that. Plus, how would you know?” Lizzie said in response to Penelope.

As soon as Lizzie said that, Penelope realized that she had made a mistake in what he had said, and now she had to fix it the only way she could, “I know, because I’m the one she’s going with.” Penelope nervously smiled, hoping that what she had just done wouldn’t spell the end for her.

It was Alaric who spoke up first, “Josie, is this true?” He figured it would do no good to reprimand Penelope for being snarky to Lizzie, and he was also more preoccupied with the turn of events.

Josie glanced nervously at Penelope, unsure of what had just happened, but she eventually confirmed, “Yeah, it’s true. We just weren’t really making it known yet.” She had no idea if what she said was what she should’ve said, but she really didn’t have another option. It was either agree to what Penelope had said or admit that no one else had asked her to homecoming.

Lizzie just sat in stunned silence at the fact that her sister would be going to homecoming with her new sworn enemy. She genuinely didn’t think matters could get any worse than they already had been, but she had just been proven wrong.

“This would’ve been nice to know, Josette,” Alaric said in annoyance, unable to comprehend why his daughter would not have told him about this, especially since Josie had only been able to talk about Penelope thus far. 

Penelope held in a laugh when she heard Dr Saltzman call Josie by her actual name, because she had been completely unaware that Josie’s full name was Josette. Having a quick response, she replied to Dr Saltzman, “It was because I asked her to. I was trying to figure out a way to tell my mom, because she’s, uh, not the most accepting, so I was trying to think of a way to tell her before we told anyone.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you avoided my sister and acted like she didn’t exist until today,” Lizzie retaliated, crossing her arms to glare at Penelope.

“I made that up so that you wouldn’t ask questions,” Josie quickly explained, hoping she sounded convincing.

Alaric looked back and forth at his daughters before looking at Penelope and stating, “I’m sorry that your mom isn’t very accepting, but that still doesn’t excuse what happened today. It can’t happen again or else you’ll be facing detention.” Feeling as if he accomplished in properly resolving the issue he told Penelope, “Just apologize to Lizzie and then you can all go to your last class of the day.”

Realizing there was no way she could get out of this without apologizing to Lizzie, Penelope looked at Lizzie and apologized, “I’m sorry for the things I said to you. It was out of line.” She looked at Dr Saltzman as she said the last part, “It won’t happen again.”

Rolling her eyes at Penelope, Lizzie stood up and said, “Whatever,” before opening the office door and walking out.

“Well, I guess you two should be going too,” Alaric said, no hint of disappointment in his voice at how Lizzie had acted.

Both girls just nodded as they stood up and walked out of the office, neither one saying anything at first as they walked towards English class. Penelope pulled out her phone as they walked and saw she had multiple texts from Hope.

**Hope:** Where are you? You can’t be skipping already.

**Hope: ** Josie isn’t here either. You better not be off making out with her.

Making a mental note to get back at Hope later for that second text, Penelope sent back:

**Penelope:** I am not, but in a turn of events, I am going to homecoming with her.

Penelope put her phone back in her pocket as she kept walking, knowing she would be able to answer Hope’s questions soon enough.

In the end, it was Josie who broke the silence as she noted, “You didn’t have to do that, you know.” She didn’t look at Penelope as she spoke, instead she continued looking down at the ground as they walked.

“I’m well aware, but I couldn’t watch Lizzie demean you more than she already had,” Penelope explained, because that’s what she had been telling herself as to why she did it. 

“She wasn’t acting that bad,” Josie said, defending her sister before she added, “I appreciate it though. No one ever sticks up for me to Lizzie, you’re the first one. Even if you do kinda ignore me.” 

Penelope expected the final comment by Josie, but it still caught her off guard, but she played it off as if she was thinking about to say, which was, “I know I do, but I guess I’m going to have to change that, considering we’re going to homecoming together.”

By this point they were right outside the classroom, so they both stopped to finish their conversation, figuring that they had already missed a fair portion of the class, so a little bit longer wouldn’t do much harm.

Finally looking at Penelope, Josie began, “We don’t have to go to homecoming if you don’t want to, I ge-”

“Hey, I am completely okay with going with you since I got us into this mess. If you don’t want to, though, then we don’t have to. I don’t want to force you into doing something you don’t want to do,” Penelope said, interrupting Josie. 

Josie mulled over Penelope’s statement before answering her, “I don’t know how I would explain us not going to Lizzie, so count me in.” Before Penelope could answer her, Josie was asking, “So, are we friends now?”

“I don’t have friends, but I could get by with acquaintances,” Penelope cheekily replied while smirking at Josie. Penelope was strangely comfortable talking to Josie, and she couldn’t figure out why. In all honesty, it scared Penelope a little, because sure she had let Hope know some things, but with Josie she wanted to tell her everything. This was an experience Penelope had only ever felt once before, and that had only led to her getting her heart broken. Penelope knew for certain that she was going to have to be extremely careful with how she acted around Josie now, because she couldn’t go through what she had gone through with Liv again.

“Acquaintances. . .yeah, that works,” Josie slowly replied, watching Penelope’s facial expression. She had noticed how the shorter girl had been smiling at her, but it was if Penelope was thinking about something, and her smile had gone away. Unsure of if she did something wrong, she was going to ask Penelope, but didn’t get the chance to, as Penelope started speaking.

“We should probably get in there,” Penelope despondently said, any form of happiness she had been feeling, gone. However, before she walked in, she said one final thing to Josie, a hint of confidence in her voice, “I’ll give you my number after class so we can discuss more homecoming stuff. Color choices and the like.” Turning away from Josie, she walked into the classroom, and made eye contact with Hope, who of course made a confused face at her. Walking to her seat, she heard Josie following behind her, but she didn’t turn around to look at her.

“We’re definitely talking about this later,” Hope whispered to Penelope before turning her attention back to what she had been doing.

Penelope glanced up at the clock and saw that there was only ten minutes left in the period. She considered this a small blessing, because she didn’t know if she could focus on anything, because the day’s events were finally setting in, along with something Penelope had been trying to avoid since her first day last week. She might just like Josie, and that was one of the most terrifying realizations Penelope had had in her life. Luckily, before she could think about it too much, the bell was ringing, and Hope was already talking to her.

“C’mon Penelope, I need to know what happened that caused you to miss almost all of English,” Hope said, standing beside Penelope’s desk, waiting for her to stand up.

“And you will, but I have to do something first,” Penelope replied, although she was looking at Josie. Taking a deep breath, she called out, “Hey Josette, wait a second.” Penelope stood up and followed after Josie who had stopped just outside the classroom door.

Josie rolled her eyes at Penelope when she saw her and said, “Never call me Josette again. Only my friends and family call me that, and since you only wanted to be acquaintances. . .” Josie trailed off in order to let Penelope say whatever it was she had to say.

“Touché, curse me not having friends. Anyways, I just wanted to give you my number since I told you I would,” Penelope said, slightly nervous. 

“Oh yes, your number. Here,” Josie held her phone out to Penelope who took it and started making herself a contact.

“You know, you should really have a passcode or some form of security on this,” Penelope commented as she finished typing in her number and then handing the phone back to Josie.

“I’ll take that into consideration. I’ll see you around, Park,” Josie said, turning around to start walking towards her locker.

“I would say that went well,” Hope declared as she walked to stand beside Penelope.

“You heard all of that?” Penelope questioned, turning her head to look at Hope.

Rather than answer Penelope’s question, Hope starting walking and asked, “So, you and the brunette Saltzman, eh? How did you and her going to homecoming together become a thing?”

Penelope started walking after Hope, and when she caught up, she explained, “It became a thing when I panicked and said that Josie turned down this guy Ethan, because we were going together.” 

“I think I’m going to need more context. Could you start from the beginning and what caused all of this to happen?” Hope requested, stopping at her locker once she reached it, along with Penelope.

“Should I just meet you at your car so we can go to your house?” Penelope asked, knowing Hope would want to know every detail.

“You know me so well that you knew what I was going to say. I’ll see you there,” Hope smiled at Penelope before turning her attention back to her locker.

Penelope just shook her head and walked away towards her locker so she could get what she needed. After she got everything she needed, she started walking towards the parking lot to where Hope’s car was.

Hope showed up about a minute after Penelope, and they both climbed into the car. The entire ride to Hope’s house passed by in relative silence, because Penelope was preoccupied telling her mom that she would be going to Hope’s house, and Hope was focused on driving. Penelope out her phone’s sound on do not disturb after she settled her plans with her mom so that she wouldn’t be distracted when recounting her day to Hope. Which of course was going to be the first thing they talked about once they got to Hope’s house.

When they finally arrived at Hope’s house, they got out of the car, and Hope went and unlocked her front door. Once they were both inside, she closed the door behind them and started walking to where her room was, Penelope not far behind her. Setting her bookbag on her floor, Hope flopped down onto her bed, and waited for Penelope to get comfortable, and once Penelope did, Hope looked at her and said, “Spill.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure we can all see where them going to homecoming together will lead, but it might not. Anything is possible, and I'm prone to changing my mind while I write. One thing I'm not sure about is adding a chapter through Josie's perspective, or even a different character's point of view, because I feel like having it almost entirely through Penelope's adds to the aspect of not knowing what other characters are thinking. If you want to deal with even more of my nonsense, follow me on Twitter @posieclown


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, but the next chapter is finally here! Hope you enjoy! Also, as a TW, there are mentions of death and an absent father in this chapter, so if that's something that isn't your thing, please be warned.

“I can’t believe you got yourself into this situation,” Hope said, completely bewildered at how her friend had managed to end up being the one to take Josie Saltzman to homecoming.

Sighing, Penelope said, “I know, but I don’t think it will be that bad. Josie actually seems pretty cool, not that her and I will ever be anything more than acquaintances.”

“Yeah, alright, if you say so Penelope,” Hope said, not believing what the dark haired girl had said for a second. 

Penelope was about to respond when her phone went off. Looking at her phone, Penelope groaned when she saw her mom was calling her. “I have to take this, it’s my mom,” Penelope said as she answered the call. “Hey mom what is it?” Penelope said into the phone.

“I know you’re with your friend, but I need you to come home,” Penelope’s mom anxiously said.

“Is everything okay?” Penelope quickly asked, her tone laced with concern. Penelope couldn’t think of a single reason as to why her mom would be calling her like this.

There was a pause on the other end before her mom replied, “I- uh, it’s your father. His wife called, there’s been an accident.”

Penelope Park had never been close with her father. How could she have been when he left practically right after she was born? The only way she knew her father was in the form of the monthly child support checks he would send; at least he had the decency to do that. Other than that, he rarely acknowledged that Penelope even existed. He was too busy living his life with his new wife and kids. Penelope had managed to bury all her negative emotions on the matter, because she always held out a chance that she might be able to reconnect with him someday, but based on her mother’s tone, she wouldn’t be able to do that. At that moment, all the feelings she had long since buried, they rose to the surface, threatening to show themselves. 

“O-Okay mom, I’ll be home soon,” Penelope said, her voice wavering as she did so. She hung up the call, turning to look at Hope so she could ask, “Can you take me home?” Penelope managed to get the question out without her voice cracking and she was grateful for that. As much as she trusted Hope, she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to open up about her father to anyone.

Sensing the shift in Penelope’s demeanor, Hope quickly replied, “Of course. Let’s go.” Hope stood up, gathering her keys off of her dresser as she started walking downstairs, Penelope right behind her with her bookbag.

Both girls were soon seated in Hope’s car and on their way to Penelope’s house. Hope would glance at Penelope every few minutes to see if she was going to say anything, but each time she looked, Penelope seemed lost in her own thoughts. Penelope knew that Hope kept glancing at her, but she really didn’t want to talk, it was quite frankly the last thing she wanted to do. Halfway through the drive when Hope realized Penelope wasn’t going to say anything, she turned the radio on in an attempt to make the silence less uncomfortable. The music only partially made the silence less uncomfortable the rest of the drive. When they finally arrived at Penelope’s house, Penelope murmured a quick good-bye before getting out of the car and rushing into her house where she finally let her emotions show themselves on her face.

Penelope’s mom was right there to wrap her arms around her daughter in a hug, telling her everything was going to be okay. Even though she didn’t have the greatest opinion of her daughter’s father, she knew that Penelope cared about him in some way, because he was her father. So, she stood there hugging her daughter while she cried, something she knew Penelope rarely did.

Sniffling as she stepped away from her mom, Penelope wiped at her eyes, trying to regain some semblance of composure. She didn’t realize how deeply the death of someone who wasn’t even in her life would actually impact her. Looking up at her mom, she asked, “How did it happen?”

“Sweetie, it’s probably best you don’t find out,” Penelope’s mom said in an attempt to protect her daughter from what had happened.

“You know I’ll find out from the Internet if you don’t tell me,” Penelope shot back. She didn’t know why she needed to know exactly what happened, but for some reason she thought knowing would make everything slightly better.

Gesturing towards the couch, Penelope’s mother waited until both her and Penelope were seating before she revealed, “I guess he fell down the stairs at home, but he convinced everyone he was fine. Later in the day he was taking his, uh, one daughter to soccer practice and he blacked out while driving and crashed into another car on the highway.”

Penelope nodded as she processed what was happening, trying to ignore the brief flash of anger that rose up at the mention of her dad’s other daughter. She eventually asked, “Was his daughter hurt?” 

“She’s fine, just banged up a little,” Penelope’s mom answered while also trying to gauge what her daughter was feeling. Penelope had always been good at masking her emotions and her mom knew that, but it didn’t mean it was any easier to figure them out.

“That’s good,” Penelope answered, standing up to go to her room as she asked, “Am I going to have to go to his funeral?”

“Only if you want to. I’m not going to force you,” Penelope’s mom admitted.

Hesitating as she thought about what she should do, Penelope shared, “I think I want to. That way I can put a face to the man that gave me fifty percent of my DNA.” 

“Okay,” Penelope’s mom started, going on to add, “We’re gonna have to leave really early tomorrow morning though in order to make it tomorrow. South Carolina isn't too terribly far away at least.”

Penelope just hummed in acknowledgement of what her mom said as she walked up to her room, throwing her bookbag on her bed. Letting out a shaky breath, Penelope turned to her closet so she could start packing.

\--------------------------

The next day Hope was standing in front of her locker after third period, exchanging books, when someone approached her, saying her name. When she turned her head to see who it was, she noticed Josie standing there. “Hey Josie. What’s up?” Hope questioned, uncertain as to why Josie was in this part of the building. She knew Josie had the same schedule as Penelope, which meant Josie should be on the other side of the school right now.

Josie was nervous to talk to Hope, plus she was going to be late to her next class, but she was worried about Penelope. Biting her bottom lip nervously, Josie eventually answered, “Yeah, I’m good. I’m actually here to ask you something. Have you seen Penelope?”

“No, I haven’t. I only ever really see her for English, and that’s the last period of the day,” Hope told Josie, thinking back to how Penelope needed to leave yesterday. Unsure of whether or not she should tell Josie, Hope hesitantly added, “Her mom called her yesterday when we were hanging out after school, and she seemed pretty shaken up after the call. I don’t know what happened, but it might be why she isn’t here.”

“Oh, I see,” Josie said, anxiously looking down at her feet now, unsure of what to say or do. Fortunately, she didn’t have to say anything, because Hope had something to say.

“Well, I have to get to class, and so do you,” Hope stated as she closed her locker. She really didn’t want to end the conversation if Josie wasn’t ready, but at the same time, she didn’t want to be late to class.

As if remembering that she had to get to class, Josie quickly replied, “You’re right! I’m sorry for holding you up, I’ll see you in English.” Without giving Hope a chance to reply, Josie turned and started walking to the other wing of the school, sighing when she heard the bell go off that signalled she was late. Rather than going straight to class, Josie decided to stop in the bathroom before going to class, because she was already late, so a few extra minutes wouldn’t hurt. Once in the bathroom, she pulled out her phone, deciding to send Penelope a text to see if she was okay.

**Josie:** Hey, this is Josie. I was just wondering if you wanted me to send you the work you missed today? 

Deciding to wait a minute to see if Penelope would respond, Josie stood in the bathroom, but Josie realized Penelope probably wasn’t going to text back, so she left the bathroom. As she walked towards her class, she prepared for what the teacher would say to her about being late, but she knew her personal reason for being late was justified. Especially since it seemed like something bad had happened in Penelope’s life. She tried not to think too deeply about it as she stepped into the classroom.

\--------------------------

Penelope was staring out the window when she felt her phone go off in her pocket. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she saw that the text was from a number she didn’t recognize, but when she read the text, she realized that it was Josie. She really wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone though, so she put her phone back in her pocket. Her peace didn’t last long, however, as her phone vibrated again about ten minutes later. This time with a text from Hope. 

**Hope:** Josie came and asked me if I knew where you were, and I told her that I didn’t, but I may have also mentioned how you left yesterday.

A second text quickly followed the first.

**Hope: **I’m sorry if I shouldn’t have said anything. She just seemed really concerned.

Penelope rolled her eyes at Hope’s excuse for why she told Josie what she did, but she wasn’t actually mad about it. It’s not like Hope knew anything herself, not that she planned on telling her friend what had happened. Deciding she should probably text back, she sent a response.

**Penelope:** It’s all good. I did ask you to take me home suddenly yesterday, but I’m fine. So is my mom. I’ll be back at school on Thursday or Friday hopefully.

She knew she should also reply to Josie, especially since she would need the work she was missing, so she sent a reply to Josie.

**Penelope:** I would appreciate it if you did. Could you do this again for me tomorrow and possibly Thursday?

As she was setting her phone down, Penelope received a reply form Josie, which surprised her, because Josie was strictly against phones in class. Actually, Penelope realized, Josie was against phones at any point during the school day, so she couldn’t believe Josie was breaking the rules just to message her.

**Josie: **Of course I can! I’ll make sure they live up to your standards.

Forgetting everything bad that was going on, Penelope smiled as she sent a reply.

**Penelope: **You don’t know my note standards Jojo. And what’s with you being on your phone? I thought you were anti phones during the school day.

She was surprised yet again when she saw that Josie was typing a response. Penelope knew there was a chance Josie would yell at her for the nickname she used, but she didn’t really care. Surprisingly, when she read the text once Josie sent it, there was no mention of the nickname.

**Josie: **I’m only on it for educational purposes, mostly yours. Plus, my other goal was to make sure you were okay. Are you?

Needless to say, Penelope’s smile faltered a little when she read Josie’s text. Physically she was okay, maybe even mentally okay, but emotionally, Penelope knew she wasn’t emotionally okay. She couldn’t tell Josie that, even though she wanted to, because her and Josie weren’t friends. Plus, even if her and Josie were friends, bringing up your fathering dying isn’t something that’s easily brought into conversation. Before she started typing her response she had another text from Josie.

**Josie: **I didn’t mean to overstep any boundaries. I know we’re just acquaintances, and my concern borders close to the friend territory, but I just thought I should ask.

Penelope couldn’t help but let out a quiet chuckle due to Josie’s overthinking as she sent her response.

**Penelope:** Depends on your definition of okay. I am okay though. Something just came up. And don’t worry, you didn’t cross any boundaries. It’s all good.

Finally, she set her phone down, and was going to try and fall asleep, but her mom’s voice interrupted her.

“I’m glad to see you have someone that can make you smile at a time like this.”

“Mom! We were just talking about schoolwork,” Penelope protested, knowing exactly what her mom was insinuating.

Shooting a glance at her daughter, Penelope’s mom asked, “Does this lucky person happen to have a name?”

“Yeah, she does. It’s Josie, and her and I are nothing more than acquaintances,” Penelope trailed off slightly as she added, “Acquaintances who happen to be going to homecoming together.” She wasn’t really sure why she added that last tidbit of information, but she knew she was going to have to tell her mom at some point. The only thing she couldn’t understand was the warm feeling in her stomach when she said that last part.

“You’re what?” Penelope’s mom asked, completely stunned at the fact, because as much as she was messing with Penelope about this person being something more, she knew how closed off her daughter had been from her emotions since she broke up with her girlfriend. She couldn’t help but notice how her daughter said the last part of that sentence though; there was a hint of happiness in her daughter’s voice that she hadn’t heard in a long time.

Turning her attention to look out the window, Penelope tried to keep her voice neutral as she replied, “We’re going to homecoming together. It’s a long story as to why but we are. I really don’t want to talk about it though. You’ll meet her at some point I suppose, and we can talk about it then.”

Her mom knew when to push a matter and when not to push one. This was one of those instances where she knew she shouldn’t, so all she did let out a few words of understanding before the car was engulfed in silence, with just the radio playing. Left with her thoughts, Penelope’s mom wondered if Penelope liked this girl, and whether or not this girl liked her daughter back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to update this as soon as I can, but finals are approaching, and I have a lot of stuff I need to do for next semester already in terms of moving and stuff, so it might be a little hectic. As always, you can find me on Twitter @posieclown if you ever want to interact on there!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with an update! I'm hoping to be updating frequently now that the semester is done and I don't have schoolwork to worry about. This chapter was sponsored by the need for a purely Posie interaction, so on with the tale!

Penelope didn’t know what she should’ve expected going to a funeral where she had never met any of the people before. What she wasn’t expecting was how her father’s other children actually approached and tried to comfort her, although Penelope ended up consoling them more. She wasn’t expecting for his oldest daughter to ask if they could go talk alone about something. Of course she obliged, wondering what it was that the girl, Kalyn, wanted to tell her. Much to Penelope’s surprise, Kalyn was only a year younger than her, and Penelope would be lying if she said that realization didn’t hurt. In the end, the girl only wanted to talk to Penelope and get to know her, because her father had briefly mentioned that he had another daughter, and she had always wanted to get to know his other daughter. Penelope had noticed that Kalyn also didn’t seem too torn up about the loss of her father, and when she asked the girl about it, she revealed that while her father involved with her life, he was never really around. It didn’t help matters that he was apparently against the fact that she was bi and had threatened to kick her out. At that moment, Penelope realized just how better off she was without him in her life because of her sexuality. So she talked to Kalyn about how she was bi too, and the two seemed to bond over it. Before long, Kalyn was being asked to do something and the two girls parted after exchanging numbers with the promise to stay in touch and maybe try to see if they could meet up somehow. After Kalyn left her, Penelope really didn’t talk to anyone for the remainder of the viewing, because she didn’t know anyone.

Later when she was sitting in the car with her mom after eating at a restaurant, Penelope checked her phone and saw she had a text from both Hope and Josie. Hope’s text had just been a reply to something Penelope had asked earlier, so Penelope didn’t send anything back. Josie’s text on the other hand was about schoolwork and what she had missed, so Penelope sent back a quick thank you before her mom started talking to her.

“We can leave now, or we can leave tomorrow morning. It’s up to you,” Penelope’s mom told her daughter, effectively pulling Penelope out of her thoughts.

“I’m not the one driving, so, really, I think the decision is up to you,” Penelope observed, not knowing if her mom was tired or not. Her mom had been giving her space all day, and Penelope had a feeling it was because her mom didn’t know what to say to her.

“Well, if we leave tonight, we should get back to Mystic Falls by three thirty in the morning,” Penelope’s mom said before adding, “You’ll still probably be missing school tomorrow, at least you should be, but I just thought you might want to be at home instead of a hotel room. I’m fine to drive.”

Penelope didn’t want to admit that the idea of spending all of tomorrow in her room sounded amazing, so she opted for saying, “I guess we can leave tonight then. Maybe that way I can catch up on schoolwork tomorrow. Josie has been sending me everything I’ve missed.”

Her mom raised an eyebrow at this, “Josie as in the girl you’re going to homecoming with?”

Sighing, Penelope replied, “Yes it is. She’s the only Josie I know, so of course it’s her.” Ever since her mom found out about Josie, Penelope had noticed she tried to hint that there was more between her daughter and Josie. Penelope knew better than to call her mom out on it, however, because her mom would take it as an admission of her feelings, which is what Penelope didn’t want to do.

“You should invite her over to help you tomorrow,” Penelope’s mom suggested, hoping her daughter would give in and agree.

“Alright, I’ll invite her, but no promises that she’s coming,” Penelope conceded, turning her attention to her phone so she could text Josie. Unlocking her phone, she pulled up her conversation with Josie and quickly typed a message to her.

**Penelope: **Hey, I was wondering if you could come over after school tomorrow, and help me with everything I missed. I told my mom that we were going to homecoming, so she really wants to meet you even though I told her it wasn’t anything big, and I thought what better way than to invite you over to give me all my work and help me.

Reading over the message to make sure it made sense, Penelope pushed send, proceeding to set her phone down while she waited for a response. She wasn’t surprised when Josie sent her a reply a few minutes later.

**Josie: **I’m sure I can make that work, although I’m guessing this was more her idea than yours. And you’re going to be back tomorrow already?

Furrowing her brows as she read Josie’s text, Penelope sent back a simple, vague response.

**Penelope: **Yeah, I am. I managed to get everything done that I needed to, so my mom and I are leaving tonight.

Penelope set her phone down beside her and hoped that Josie wouldn’t ask her to elaborate, but when her phone went off again, she saw that Josie had asked another question.

**Josie: **I know yesterday you said you were okay, but are you really? And don’t hide behind a vague answer.

Deciding she would buy herself some time, Penelope sent back a text that she hoped would satisfy Josie’s curiosity.

**Penelope: **It’s probably best that I explain in person tomorrow. I am okay, I’m just dealing with something, but I’ll tell you tomorrow.

She waited until she got a response from Josie before she got up to start packing stuff into her bag. Fortunately for her, Josie had accepted the fact that Penelope would tell her everything tomorrow, which gave Penelope until tomorrow to figure out a believable story about what had happened. As much as she wanted to tell Josie about her dad, she had never really opened up about him, and she didn’t plan on starting now.

\--------------------------

The next day, Penelope was in her room when someone rang her doorbell. At the same time, she received a text from Josie saying she was outside. Getting out of her bed, Penelope went downstairs so she could let Josie in.

“Hey Penelope!” Josie greeted Penelope when the door opened, “I brought over everything you missed, which fortunately isn’t much, but it’s still a fair amount, especially calculus.”

Offering a faint smile at Josie, Penelope replied, “I’m not surprised, he started teaching the first day.” Realizing she hadn’t moved to let Josie in, Penelope moved to the side saying, “Come in, my room is upstairs.”

Josie stepped into the house, looking around at the interior of the house. She noted that the house was sparsely decorated, but most of what was out were photographs. The few that were close to her, Josie could see that they were pictures of Penelope and who—Josie assumed—was Penelope’s mom.

Clearing her throat, Penelope said to Josie, “As much as I enjoy you snooping with me right here, I think we should probably go start going over what I missed.” She smiled when she saw how Josie startled at her statement, causing her to let out a quiet chuckle, “Come on creeper, let’s go.” Penelope started to move towards the stairs, and once she was at the bottom, she waited for Josie to follow.

“I wasn’t creeping,” Josie defended herself as she walked towards the stairs, “I was just looking at the photos that are around your house.”

Rolling her eyes, Penelope turned and started heading up the stairs, “An interesting defense, but I think I stand by my observation that you were snooping.” Penelope reached the top of the stairs and walked into her room with Josie close behind who was still trying to explain what she was doing.

“If people put out photos in their house, they’re for people to look at, which is what I was doing,” Josie said, getting slightly flustered as she did so.

“Okay, okay, I get it. My mom is allowing people to be creepers and snoop,” Penelope eventually observed as she sat down on her bed. When she saw that Josie looked uncertain about where to sit since Penelope had all of her chairs covered in differing belongings, Penelope moved over on her bed and said to Josie, “Here, you can here.”

Josie smiled slightly at Penelope as she joined her on the bed, proceeding to pull a book out of her bookbag. “So, this is what you missed,” Josie started to say, thus, starting the study session.

An hour into their study session as they were wrapping things up, Josie finally asked what had been bothering her, “So...what was it you were going to tell me today?”

Penelope continued working on the calculus problem she was in the middle of, not saying anything to Josie because she hadn’t come up with a decent excuse that she could tell Josie. When she finally finished the problem, she looked up at Josie, and accepted that she was going to have to tell the truth, “I guess I’ll start from the beginning.” Taking a deep breath, Penelope started to elaborate, “The reason I left Hope’s house the other day is because my mom called me. She called me to say that something had happened and I knew it had to have been bad just by how she had said it. Then, I asked Hope to bring me home, and once I was home, my mom explained everything that had happened to me. So we drove to South Carolina, did what we had to, and now here I am doing homework with you the next day.”

Josie stared at Penelope for a second before looking away as she thought about everything Penelope hadn’t said, because it was obvious the girl was leaving certain things out. After a moment, Josie thoughtfully replied, “That definitely sounds like a busy couple of days, so how are you feeling about it?”

“I’m feeling like I just in a car for an excruciating amount of time,” Penelope replied, closing her textbook and setting it beside her, “I’m tired and emotionally drained, but hanging out with you has been a nice way to get back into the swing of things here in Mystic Falls.” 

Blushing, Josie looked away, focusing her gaze on a random spot on the floor as she answered, “I’m glad I could help.”

Penelope noticed Josie’s blush, but didn’t call the brunette out on it. Instead, she changed the topic by asking, “So, homecoming? Do you have any idea of what color you’re looking for?” She figured this would be a good way to get Josie off of her back, and she was right, because Josie perked up at the mention of homecoming.

“Honestly, I was thinking of maybe wearing yellow. There’s this dress I actually really like. It isn’t entirely yellow, but it has sunflowers all over it, and I just really love it,” Josie rambled as she grabbed her phone to look for the picture she had of the dress.

Penelope patiently waited while Josie rambled and scrolled through her phone, and when Josie showed her the picture, Penelope was taken by surprise. It seemed Josie had already tried on the dress at a store, and Penelope would be lying if it didn’t look good on Josie. The dress was black on the top, but the bottom half was white and had sunflowers all over it. Turning her head to look at Josie as she answered, Penelope said, “I really like the dress, it looks good on you. I’ll be sure to match the colors with my suit.” She watched as Josie blushed and looked away again, and for some reason Penelope found herself blushing too. 

Josie took a minute to respond as she tried to stop the thoughts that were running rampant in her head at Penelope’s comment, but when she finally managed to reply, she quietly said, “I’m glad you like it, because I might have already gotten it.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Penelope asked, letting out an airy laugh as she did so. She could tell that Josie was really excited about the dress, and Penelope just wanted to see Josie happy since Penelope had kind of forced her way into being Josie’s date. However, it seemed like Josie was perfectly okay with how things were playing out, so Penelope felt like she didn’t have much to worry about.

“I would say it’s because I’m predictable, but you don’t really know me, so I have no clue,” Josie said in an attempt to continue the lighthearted mood between them. Josie couldn’t wrap her head around why Penelope only seemed to be like this when they were alone, but when someone else showed up, Penelope would grow distant and more guarded. 

“I suppose that’s true,” Penelope observed, knowing Josie’s words carried a lot of truth to them as she added, “Perhaps we could change that though. Maybe we could do something like this again, but instead of schoolwork, we could get to know each other more.” Penelope didn’t know where the idea came from, nor why she spoke it into existence, but there was no going back when she saw Josie look up at her, momentarily surprised.

When she was certain she heard Penelope correctly, Josie eagerly replied, “I would love that!” In an attempt to tone down her excitement she added, “I mean, we better appear as if we’re friends if we’re going to go to homecoming together.” Glancing at her phone, she noticed the time and realized she had to be home soon, which she voiced to Penelope, “I have to go, because my dad said him and my mom had something they wanted to tell me and Lizzie tonight.”

Penelope didn’t like the sound of what Josie had said, but she didn’t say anything about it, instead standing up to walk Josie out, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at school then. Text me when you get home though, I’d like to know you didn’t perish on your drive back home.”

They had arrived at the front door at this point, so Josie turned around before dramatically saying, “I suppose I can do that.” Turning around to open the door she cheerfully added, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe we can plan that getting to know each other day.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Penelope answered as Josie walked to her car. Closing the door, Penelope retreated to her room where she waited for a text from Josie which ultimately came about ten minutes later. The rest of the night went by quickly; Penelope didn’t hear from Josie again the rest of that night, and little did Peneleope know that she would find out why the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps I'm setting this up for more angst than I originally intended, but I like where it's going, and I hope you all will too! I'll see you all when the next update rolls out. I hope every has a nice holiday!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am finally back with an update! It took longer than expected to write, but I hope you guys enjoy it! :D

The next morning during homeroom, neither Saltzman girl walked into homeroom, which got Penelope’s attention, but she tried not to dwell on it. That didn’t last for long as the usual morning announcements weren’t done by Dr Saltzman, so Penelope knew something had to be up if all three of them were missing. She had a sinking feeling that it had something to do with why Josie had to leave last night, but she had no way of knowing. There was the possibility of texting Josie, but as it stood, the teacher was too close for her to use her phone without getting in trouble. So she didn’t have a chance to text Josie in homeroom, but when homeroom was over, Penelope hurried to the bathroom to send a quick text. Pulling out her phone, she thought about what to say before sending her message.

**Penelope: ** Hey, I hope you’re okay since you’re not at school. Do you want me to bring you what you miss after school today? I guess I owe you or something since you did the same for me.

Sliding her phone back into her pocket, Penelope hurried off to her first class so she wouldn’t be tardy. She figured she wouldn’t hear back from Josie for a while, so she focused her attention on paying attention to what the teacher was talking about, which entailed starting to cover the history of pirates and common problems in their lives such as scurvy. Finding the lesson rather interesting, Penelope took notes on how they would be affected by it and how they combatted it. Before she knew it, the class was over, and she had to get to her second class. Along the way, she checked her phone, but saw there was no response from Josie yet, so she put her phone back in her pocket and continued to class. Penelope continued this cycle until she was leaving fourth period and saw she finally had a response from Josie. Ignoring the feeling of relief she felt at the notification, Penelope just opened her messages and read the text.

**Josie: ** That won’t be necessary, I’ll just get it tomorrow. You don’t have to go out of your way to make sure I get missed work.

Frowning at Josie’s response, Penelope sent back a reply before walking into her next class.

**Penelope: ** What if I said I was going to be near your house and could drop by? You missed a lot of notes in first period today, and there’s no need to fall behind this early in the year.

About ten minutes into class Penelope felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. A few minutes after this when the teacher had given them some problems to work on independently, Penelope asked to go to the bathroom so she could see if it had been Josie that had responded. Once in the bathroom, she pulled out her phone and saw that the message she had gotten was from Josie, so she opened it.

**Josie: ** You don’t even know where my house is, therefore, you would have no idea if you were near it. Just drop it, I’ll be fine.

Penelope knew something had to be off, because the one thing that had stuck with her about Josie—other than the way she tried to ignore how she could get lost in Josie’s eyes—was how Josie was always kind, no matter what the situation. So for Josie to be lashing out like this, something had to have been going on that was impacting Josie in a negative way. Leaning against the sink, Penelope typed back a response.

**Penelope: ** Alright, I’ll drop it, but just to let you know, I’ll be at home all night if you happen to need to come over. Whether it be for schoolwork, or to talk, or even a combination of both; I’m here for you in maybe even a friend way.

Waiting as long as she could to go back to class in case Josie answered, Penelope was just about to leave when she got a notification saying that she had a text from Josie, which she quickly read.

**Josie: ** I might just take you up on that offer. And you have no idea how much it means to me that we might be friends.

Realizing that she probably take a non-witty route in her reply, Penelope sent back a genuine message that didn’t have any deeper meaning.

**Penelope: ** Sometimes we just need a friend that we can count on. I hope to see you later, but for now, I have to return to the torture that is the American education system.

With that, Penelope put her phone back in her pocket and walked back to class, trying not to think about what she had said to Josie about needing a friend. Sure, she came to Mystic Falls not wanting to get close to anyone, but that had failed the first day of school when she met Hope, and now she was becoming somewhat close with Josie. But there was still the matter of the fact that she had yet to tell anyone about her dad, but she didn’t want to throw all of her life problems on someone she just met, especially not the idea of telling someone you were just getting to know about your dad’s—who you had never met—death. Penelope quieted down all these thoughts and instead went about the rest of the day trying to focus on her classes, instead of being trapped inside her head. This all failed miserably during lunch when she went to her usual spot to avoid everyone.

“Hey, there you are. I’ve been trying to find you all day since you ditched me the last few days,” a voice rang out that was approaching Penelope.

Sitting up in the chair she was in, Penelope looked towards the sound of the voice and saw Hope approaching her, who also promptly sat down in the seat next to Penelope. “Well we only ever see each other in English usually, so that’s when I planned on seeing you next,” Penelope said in response to Hope, adding, “Plus, lunch is where I find peace in the silence of this spot while I eat my lunch.”

“You really should eat in the cafeteria a day. That way we could spend more than just English class bothering each other,” Hope stated after she situated herself comfortably in the seat, “Plus, I think you would like who I sit with, even though you don’t want to make friends.”

“It’s too loud in the cafeteria. At least in here, the noise is subdued somewhat so I can have a moment of peace,” Penelope countered, turning her head so she was facing Hope.

Hope frowned at what Penelope said, deciding to reply with, “Just one day before the year is over. You can meet Ethan, Maya, Kaleb, and some others. You might not like some of the others, but I know for a fact you’ll like the one person.”

“Oh yeah?” Penelope challenged, “Who would that be?”

“Sorry, can’t tell you,” Hope smirked, adding, “I guess you’ll just have to come join us a day. I don’t make the rules, I only enforce them.”

“You’re annoying sometimes, you know that, right?” Penelope asked, sighing as she leaned back in her chair and conceded to what Hope said, “I guess I could sit with you one day, but not anytime soon.”

Hope looked straight ahead for a moment as she thought about what Penelope said, and then, ultimately, changed the topic, “So...Josie’s not here today, how’s that going for you?”

“It’s going just fine. I texted her to see if she was okay, but she never answered that question,” Penelope frowned as she was realizing that fact for the first time before she added, “I don’t know what’s going on with her, but I think she might be coming over later if she can, so I’m guessing she’s not sick.”

“Well, you hung out with her last night, did she seem fine then?” Hope asked, deciding not to call Penelope out for caring about Josie’s well-being.

Taking a deep breath as she debated how much she should say, Penelope eventually stated, “Yeah, she was all good. Something must’ve happened when she went home.” Penelope realized it really wasn’t her place to say that Josie had gone home because her parents wanted to tell her something, so this is what led to her being vague with her answer.

Accepting Penelope’s response, Hope sat there for a minute before replying, “I guess you’ll find out later maybe.” Hope stood up as she was saying this, turning to look down at Penelope as she finished with, “I better get back to my table though, Maya wanted to tell me something. I’ll see you in English.”

“See you then I guess,” Penelope replied to Hope as she watched Hope walk away and back to the cafeteria, leaving Penelope with her thoughts once more. 

Penelope spent the rest of lunch thinking about the past few days. Sure, she had a lot of feelings about everything that happened, but she couldn’t figure out what exactly these feelings were. She was just trying to bury her feelings on the whole matter if she was being honest with herself, because from what Kalyn had told her, her father wasn’t a good person, so Penelope really didn’t want to feel any kind of feelings towards someone that was practically a stranger to her. She was in the middle of all of these thoughts and feelings when the bell rang, so she left the auditorium with an unresolved issue.

Two periods later, in English class, Penelope was surprised when MG turned around to say something to her.

“Hey, have you heard from Josie? It’s not like her to miss school and she never answered my texts, so I’m a little worried, especially since none of the other Saltzman family members are here today,” MG quietly said to Penelope, so as to not get the teacher’s attention.

“Yeah, she answered my message earlier, but I have no clue what’s going on with her,” Penelope replied, looking up at MG as he listened to what Penelope was saying.

MG just nodded and turned around murmuring a reply, “Of course she would answer you, but I’m glad she hasn’t gone completely off the grid.”

Penelope didn’t have a chance to ask him what he meant, as the teacher was glaring at them for talking, so she was left alone to think about what MG could have meant by his comment. She spent the rest of the class taking notes and trying to figure out the hidden meaning behind MG’s words, but when class was over, her thoughts shifted to getting out of school.

\--------------------------

Penelope was sitting on her bedroom floor doing homework when she heard the doorbell ring. She heard her mom walking around downstairs, heading towards the door, and then she heard her mom calling up to her.

“Uh, sweetie, Josie’s here.”

Standing up, Penelope walked towards the staircase where she could hear her her mom and Josie making conversation while they waited for her.

“Is everything alright Josie?”

“I’m good Mrs. Park. I just have to talk to Penelope about something.”

Penelope saw this as her cue to interrupt before her mom interrogated Josie, so she hurried down the stairs and started speaking as she went, “Josie, I’m glad you stopped by. We can talk in my room.” She finally looked at Josie when she stopped halfway down the stairs, and she saw that it looked like Josie had been crying at some point. Before she could say anything else, Josie was saying something.

“I appreciate you inviting me over,” Josie said as she walked towards the stairs and started walking up them.

“If you two need anything, just let me know,” Penelope’s mom said as the two girls started heading up the stairs to Penelope’s room

“Will do mom,” Penelope replied as she headed back upstairs, then focusing her attention on Josie—who was following right behind her—as she said, “Well, I appreciate you actually taking me up on my offer. I didn’t think you were going to.”

Josie didn’t reply until they were in Penelope’s room, but when they finally got settled, Josie finally spoke, saying, “I wasn’t going to, but I couldn’t be at home, and I figured it would be better to come here than to go do something completely idiotic.”

Penelope hesitated, not sure if she should ask,but she ultimately did, “Why would you do something you regret? What happened?” She knew something was obviously wrong with Josie, but it seemed to be bigger than she had thought. 

“Honestly, my life is falling apart, and even though I’m pretty sure you hate me, you’re somehow the only person I feel like I can go to,” Josie hurriedly say, continuing to ramble, “I don’t know if it’s because you don’t know a lot about me and my family, or what, but I just feel like you can trusted. And sure, maybe I’m being dramatic and should’ve seen this coming—the signs were all there—but it still both-”

“Josie, what happened?” Penelope asked, cutting Josie off from rambling any longer, continuing with, “And for the record, I don’t hate you. I might act like it, but I don’t.”

At this point, Josie looked up at Penelope, and Penelope could tell that she was trying to hold back tears, so Penelope did something she rarely does, she moved towards Josie and wrapped her arms around Josie in a hug, saying, “If you don’t want to talk about it, we can always do something else like watch a movie and eat ice cream.”

Shaking her head, Josie wiped at her eyes as she responded, “I need to talk about it, I just don’t know how because I don’t want to accept that it’s happening and I don’t know how to put my feelings into words.”

Penelope pulled away from Josie so that talking would be easier as she answered, “Sometimes it’s hard to find the words for what we’re feeling, whether it be because we don’t know what we’re feeling or we just don’t want to acknowledge them. But sometimes you just have to just try and put it into words so that you feel somewhat better.”

“Says the girl who couldn’t give me an actual answer as to where to why she went to Connecticut out of the blue,” Josie replied, effectively calling Penelope out on her own hypocrisy. 

“That’s a fair point,” Penelope paused before suggesting, “How about we both try to put our feelings into words about events that happened in our life this week. That way we’re kind of each other’s confidant.”

“Or, and I know this is a wild concept, you could call it what it is, friends,” Josie shot back, a faint smile on her face as she momentarily forgot what was troubling her, but she quickly remembered and her smile disappeared as she said, “I like your idea though. It might help both of us deal with stuff.”

“I’ll act like you didn’t say the first part,” Penelope started, clearing her throat before adding, “Countdown from three, and we’ll say what happened this week?”

Josie just nodded in response to Penelope’s suggestion, and waited for her to start counting down.

“Let’s get this show on the road then,” Penelope stated, closing her eyes for a second while she prepared.

“Three.”

Penelope noticed Josie take a deep breath in preparation.

“Two.” 

Penelope clenched her hands into fists as she realized she was about to actually vocalize what had happened to someone.

“One.”

“My dad that I never knew died,” Penelope admitted, looking everywhere Josie wasn’t.

At the same time, Josie revealed what was troubling her, after letting out a shaky breath, “My parents are getting a divorce.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I leave it on another semi-suspenseful note perhaps. I'm really not sure when I'll be able to update next because school is starting again so I'll have to adjust to that. You can find me on Twitter @posieclown if you want to interact. Until next time!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends! I know it's been a while since I updated this fic, but I finally got around to it, and I figured we could all use a pick me up after yesterday marking 1 year since Penelope left. Luckily she lives on in fics and edits, or else I don't know what we would do. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy!

“Oh my god that’s awful Penelope.”

“How are you doing since that happened?”

Penelope and Josie’s statements rang out at the same time and they both stared at one another before Josie ultimately answered Penelope’s question.

“I’m doing as well as can be expected. I’ve just felt numb since they told us though. And when I’m not numb, it’s a mixture of sadness and anger. I’m just angry at the whole situation and I wish I could do something, but then I’m hit with the sadness because I can’t do anything and I can’t even talk to Lizzie about this because she just talks about how she’s feeling and never asks how I’m doing. I just want her to acknowledge that I’m hurting too. She only ever thinks about herself, and I just want her to realize she isn’t the only one being impacted.” As if realizing she went too far, Josie quickly added, “I didn’t mean that last part. But your dad died! How are you feeling?”

Leaning back so that she was laying on her bed beside Josie, Penelope started, “Before you say I’m dodging your question, I’m not. I will answer it, but I wanted to say this first.” Looking up at Josie from her current position, Penelope continued, “It’s okay to admit you don’t like how your sister treats you. Your feelings are just as important as hers and she should be cognizant of that. What’s happening with your parents impacts you just as much as it’s impacting her.” Running a hand through her hair, Penelope sighed as she prepared for answering Josie’s question, “As for your question, I don’t know how I’m feeling. I never knew him but it’s still weird to know that he died and I never will meet him, but I’m almost glad for that because my half-sister told me he was homophobic and had threatened to kick her out. So I don’t know how I feel based off of all of this; there’s a lot to process and when I try to, I just get more confused.”

“We’re quite the pair it seems,” Josie quietly observed, leaning back so she was also laying down, “He really threatened to kick your half-sister out?”

“That’s what she told me. She told me he wasn’t that great of a guy,” Penelope replied before adding, “And we really are quite the pair. This week really wasn’t our friend.”

Silence overtook the two girls for a few minutes as they both got lost in their own thoughts about what was happening. It was during this silence that Penelope thought about something Josie had said when she had arrived about how she should’ve seen this coming, and for a brief moment mulled this over.

“Jojo,” Penelope cautiously said, and when Josie turned her head to face her, Penelope continued, “Don’t be too hard on yourself about not being able to know this was coming. It’s not something people want to think about with their parents, so don’t blame yourself for not being aware of it.” Penelope reached over and grabbed Josie’s hand giving it a reassuring squeeze, confused as to why Josie quickly looked away when she did so.

“But all the signs were right there. My mom shifted her work schedule at the hospital so that she wouldn’t have to see my dad, and she would be home while he was working, which also meant while we were at school. And when they were in the same room they would never talk to each other except to fight, and they were never affectionate towards one another. I should have known this would happen,” Josie explained, her voice cracking at one point as she fought back tears once again.

Frowning, Penelope tugged slightly on Josie’s hand until she looked back at her, “That line of thinking isn’t going to do you any good though. Sure, there could have been signs that this was going to happen, but there was no reason for you to be looking for them. You shouldn’t beat yourself over this.” 

Josie sighed before admitting, “I know you’re right, but I just keep thinking about it, and it hurts. It hurts and it leaves me feeling angry and sad, and I hate it.”

“And it’s okay to feel like that because what is happening is awful, but it can’t be undone,” Penelope paused, trying to think of what she was trying to say, “It’s like squeezing all the toothpaste out of the tube for some reason; you can’t undo that action by putting it back in the tube, instead you have to figure out what to do now that you have all this toothpaste everywhere. And trust me, I now realize how stupid that sounded, but it’s the first example I thought of.”

Josie let out a small chuckle at Penelope’s toothpaste example as she said, “It was pretty bad, but I get what you’re trying to say. At the end of the day I can’t fix what’s happening.”

Penelope nodded, “Some things just can’t be fixed no matter how hard you, or other people, try.”

“I guess you have a point,” Josie stated, closing her eyes to gather her thoughts, “I don’t think I can go back home tonight though. I can’t go home and act like I’m okay for Lizzie.”

“Then don’t,” Penelope quickly said before rushing to explain herself, “You can stay here, my mom won’t mind. As long as you’re allowed to stay, you can.” A part of Penelope was internally screaming at herself that she was letting Josie get too close by inviting her to stay over, but she knew Josie needed someone right now, and she tried to bury the slight joy she felt that she was the one Josie wanted to go to. It was during this line of thinking that Penelope realized she was still holding Josie’s hand, but she figured it would be too weird to let go of it now, so she just kept holding Josie’s hand.

Biting her bottom lip in thought about the whole situation, Josie eventually replied, “They’ll be okay with it since they’ll know I’m somewhere safe and not setting something on fire. But I don’t want to intrude upon you and your mom if you two were doing anything tonight. Plus, I don’t have any clothes to wear to school tomorrow so that’s a problem.”

“Before I get into the clothes situation, I just want to say that your fire example was very specific and I’m going to need a backstory on that,” Penelope simply stated, curious as to what could’ve led to that specific choice of words before continuing to talk, “As for staying here, my mom and I really don’t really have much planned tonight except watching  _ Jeopardy _ , but you are more than welcome to join us. I’ll go ask her right now if you want. And on the matter of clothes, you can wear something of mine tomorrow, I’m sure I have something that is your style.”

“The story of me and fire is best suited for another day, preferably never,” Josie revealed before nervously continuing, “You don’t have to go ask her, I believe you that she’ll be fine with it. You’re sure I can borrow clothes though?”

“Of course. What are friends for?” Penelope sincerely asked, offering a smile to Josie, hoping this would improve the girl’s mood, even if it wasn’t by much.

“Oh? So we’re friends now?” Josie asked, raising an eyebrow at Penelope.

“As long as you’re okay with it, we can be,” Penelope truthfully replied, studying Josie’s face to try and figure out what she was thinking. She could see a smile ghosting Josie’s face at her statement, so Penelope was hoping that Josie’s mood was improving.

Both girls were pulled out of their conversation when Penelope’s mom cleared her throat in the doorway. Penelope quickly let go of Josie’s hand and tried not to think about how Josie’s face fell at the action as she sat up to look at her mom.

“Hey girls, I don’t mean to intrude but dinner is ready, and you’re welcome to join us Josie. There’s enough to go around if you didn’t have dinner before you came here.”

Josie sat up on the bed as she replied to Penelope’s mom, “That would be great Mrs. Park. Thank you so much.”

“I was also wondering if she could stay the night Mom,” Penelope said to her mom, hoping her mom would notice her cautious tone and not ask questions.

Staring at her daughter for a moment, Penelope’s mom eventually responded, “Of course she can stay the night, but you know the rules Penelope.”

“Of course I do,” Penelope replied through gritted teeth as she tried to not think about the fact that Josie was looking at her with a confused expression on her face.

“Alright then. I’ll see you two downstairs then,” Penelope’s mom said before turning around and leaving the room.

“What rules were she talking about?” Josie curiously asked as soon as Penelope’s mom was gone.

Sighing, Penelope answered, “It’s really only one rule, but it’s just that we both can’t sleep in my bed. I’m pretty sure she thinks we’re a thing or are going to be, so she wants to ensure nothing happens. It’s like she forgot I’m not interested in romance in the slightest.” Realizing she got off topic, Penelope redirected her next words back to the original topic, “You can have my bed though. It’ll be comfier than anything else, and as my guest, I insist you have the comfiest spot.”

“You don’t have to do that Penelope. I can sleep on the floor or something,” Josie countered before making a comment about Penelope’s mom’s rule, “I’m sure the whole us going to homecoming together is what’s making her cautious.”

“Jojo, the bed is all yours, and it’s not up for debate.” Penelope replied matter of factly to Josie, “And as for the second thing you said, you’re probably right. Regardless, we better go eat before she thinks we died or something.” She internally cringed as soon as the words were out of her mouth about dying, but she shook it off, and looking at Josie, she saw concern flash across the other girl’s features.

Ultimately, Josie didn’t say anything about the last thing Penelope had said, instead opting to simply say, “Awesome, because I am famished.” Getting up off of the bed, Josie stood there waiting for Penelope to get up, and when she did, the two went downstairs to eat.

\--------------------------

“You were really bad at guessing the answers to  _ Jeopardy _ ,” Josie blatantly commented as the two girls returned to Penelope’s room an hour or so later.

“Not all of us can be trivia masters like you seem to be,” Penelope shot back, still impressed by the fact that Josie had gotten most of the questions right on  _ Jeopardy _ . Before Josie could say anything, Penelope asked, “Do you need to take a shower at all? I know some people prefer to shower either at night or in the morning, so I don;t want to mess up your shower schedule if you have one.”

“How thoughtful, and you’re right, I do have a preference. Showering at night is simply the best time to shower, because otherwise you go to bed dirty,” Josie replied to Penelope.

“Oh my god! That is exactly how I feel! You’re the only other person I know that has the same reason fro showering at night,” Penelope exclaimed, before schooling her features back into one that wasn’t as excited, because she told herself it was a stupid thing to bond over. In an attempt to move on from it, Penelope continued, “Let me get you towels and some pajamas and then I’ll take you to the bathroom.”

Josie noticed how excited Penelope had been, and then how she tried to hide it, but she said nothing, instead just replying, “Sounds good.”

Penelope just nodded in response and started her goal of finding a set of pajamas for Josie, which didn’t take long, and then she was getting towels and leading Josie to the bathroom.

“The shower isn’t weird; it’s pretty standard, so you should be good,” Penelope said to Josie as she was leaving the bathroom, “And when you’re done, you can just leave the towel on the floor. I’ll deal with it after my shower.”

“Okay,” Josie replied, moving to close the door as she said, “If this shower ends up being weird, I will not hesitate to hold it against you forever.”

Penelope just laughed at that as Josie finished closing the door, and then she was returning to her room. Sitting down on her bed, Penelope pulled out her phone and saw that she had a couple texts from Hope.

**Hope: ** So did Josie ever show up?

**Hope: ** I’m guessing since you haven’t replied she’s there. That or some ax-wielding murderer got to you.

Rolling her eyes at Hope’s second message, Penelope typed back a response.

**Penelope: ** She did show up, so I did not fall victim to an ax murderer. 

She wasn’t surprised to see Hope typing a response back almost instantly that Hope also quickly sent.

**Hope: ** Well that’s good at least. Is Josie okay?

Frowning, Penelope took a moment to think of her response before typing and sending it.

**Penelope: ** She is now. We talked for a little bit and she’s staying the night now.

She regretted adding the seond sentence as soon as she read Hope’s reply.

**Hope:** You go Park! Getting Josie into your bed so quickly.

Penelope knew Hope was only messing with her, but Hope’s message still made her feel weird. It was a feeling she hadn’t felt in a while, and that’s what Penelope knew made it dangerous, so she buried the feeling as she sent her reply.

**Penelope:** Haha, you’re so funny Hope. You know her and I are nothing like that.

Hope’s reply came quickly.

**Hope: ** You might not be right now, but who knows what the future holds for you.

Penelope didn’t even bother responding to Hope’s message, knowing it wouldn’t do her any good and that Hope would just keep messing with her. Plus, she could hear that the shower had turned off, so she got up to get towels and pajamas for after her shower since Josie was done with hers.

\--------------------------

“What do you mean you’ve never seen  _ Bolt _ !?” Josie questioned, her voice laced with shock at this realization.

“I just never watched it growing up,” Penelope admitted, sensing she was about to watch it.

“Well it’s obviously the movie we have to watch and you know it,” Josie stated, her face breaking out into a smile as Penelope selected the movie on the screen, “Prepare, because you’re about to partake in watching one of the best animated movies to exist.”

Penelope laughed at Josie’s statement mostly because of how passionate Josie seemed about the movie as she ultimately replied, “I’m sure I’ll love it Jojo.”

“Oh you will,” Josie confidently replied as the movie started, and the two fell into silence.

About halfway into the movie Penelope noticed Josie had fallen asleep, presumably due to the stress of everything that was going on in her life, and Penelope didn’t blame her. Shifting so she could grab a blanket, Penelope covered Josie with it so the girl wouldn’t be cold, and then she grabbed one for herself. She knew she probably should’ve moved off her bed because she was tired, but she stayed on it, wanting to be comfortable to watch the end of the movie. However, a few minutes later, Penelope had drifted off to sleep as well, right at the fire scene in the movie.

An hour later, Penelope’s mom came to check on the two girls and noticed that they were both asleep. Deciding not to disturb them, she simply turned the TV and lights off, however, not before noticing how Penelope shifted closer to Josie in her sleep. She knew that no matter what her daughter would say, she was definitely feeling something for this girl, even if she refused to acknowledge this fact. For now, though, she would just watch as the two girls danced around their feelings because she had eyes, and she had noticed their hand holding before dinner and how Josie looked disappointed when Penelope had let go of her hand. As she walked out of the bedroom, she knew that whatever was going to happen would be a long and bumpy road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Penelope's mom is no fool, and I really need to come up with a name for her, but that will come later hopefully. I have an idea for introducing her name, but tis a secret that is probably obvious. Until my next update (which will hopefully be soon) you can find me on Twitter @legayseas  
Stay healthy and hydrated until then though!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shift in perspective to that of Josie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everyone, i'm back with an update! if any of you follow me on twitter, i tweeted that writing is really hard for me right now while my mental health teeters on the edge of being good and not good, but i had some motivation so i got around to updating this fic. i just want to say that i appreciate you all for sticking with me through my writing struggles, so without further ado, i present this chapter!

Waking up the next morning, Josie felt the warmth of someone next to her and an arm wrapped around her, so in her half asleep daze—that was the moment between the world of dreams and reality—she moved closer to the source of the warmth. It was then as everything from the previous night came rushing back that she remembered exactly where she was. She was in bed with someone she was trying to deny her feelings for, and given the current situation, she was doing a horrible job at denying them. 

Looking towards Penelope’s face to see if the other girl was awake, Josie slowly shifted away from Penelope when she judged that the girl was still awake. Proceeding to then look at the clock on Penelope’s nightstand, Josie saw that it was almost seven o’clock, way later than she ever woke up for school. A part of her wondered what time Penelope woke up, but that was soon answered when at seven, the clock started going off. 

“Fuck, not already,” Penelope groaned as she reached out to try and turn her alarm off. Of course, with Penelope being on the complete other side of the bed due to the night’s sleeping arrangement, she was met with Josie’s presence. 

Not looking at Penelope in fear of the look she would see on the girl’s face, Josie moved towards the alarm clock saying, “Don’t worry I got it. And I would just like to say that you get up way later than I like.” Turning the alarm off, she relaxed back into the bed.

“Well you could’ve gone downstairs when you woke up,” Penelope grumbled out, shifting as she concluded, “I’m sure my mom would’ve offered you some breakfast.”

“I woke up right before your alarm went off, so the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind yet,” Josie replied, her thoughts wandering back to how she had woken up wrapped in Penelope’s arms. Turning to finally look at Penelope again, Josie asked, “Is your mom going to be upset that we both slept in your bed? I know she said we couldn’t and if you get in trouble I ca-”

“Josie relax,” Penelope interjected, effectively cutting Josie off before she could ramble any further, “It’ll be fine. She probably already knows we both fell asleep in my bed when she more than likely came to say goodnight to us last night, but we were both asleep.” Sitting up, Penelope started to move so that she could get out of the bed.

“As long as you’re sure,” Josie frowned, “I just don’t want to cause problems, especially since I just kind of crashed here last night.” Josie stood up as she thought about how Penelope had been quick to let her stay last night. She hadn’t really been expecting Penelope to do that, considering Penelope seemed to have her guard up at almost all times, but Josie thought that maybe after last night Penelope was beginning to trust her more. At least that’s what made sense in her mind because of what Penelope had told her about her dad the previous night.

By this point Penelope had walked over to her closet and was picking out different shirts that Josie assumed were for her to pick from for the day.

“Okay so, I have these shirts to pick from,” Penelope said, holding up a yellow shirt that Josie recognized as a Pittsburgh Pirates shirt and then a white shirt with red stripes. Adding onto her statement, Penelope also commented, “And if you’d rather not be seen in either of these, I can offer you a hoodie to put over a shirt.”

“It’s still practically summer out,” Josie laughed, “If I wore a hoodie, I would probably sweat to death. I’ll take the Pirates shirt though, although I can’t believe you actually own something baseball related.”

“Just because I don’t seem like a sports person, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for me to be a fan of them. Even if the team happens to be one of the worst in the league,” Penelope fired back, tossing the shirt towards Josie, proceeding to put the other one back in her closet before going to her dresser to get shorts.

Curious about how much Penelope knew about baseball she asked, “I take it you actively follow the Pirates then?”

Speaking over her shoulder, Penelope replied, “Unfortunately. I’m fully aware of every stupid trade they make and every game they got blown out in, ultimately building up to a ridiculous losing skid.” As she finished her sentence, she turned to Josie with a pair of jean shorts, “Here, these should fit.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate this,” Josie answered, a smile forming on her face, “For the clothes, but more importantly for revealing the fact that you’re secretly a sports fan.” Grabbing the shirt Penelope had thrown at her, Josie stood up and grabbed the shorts from Penelope before heading towards the bathroom asking, “You wouldn’t happen to have a random new toothbrush laying around, would you? I get that it’s a weird question, but I value good dental hygiene.”

Rolling her eyes as she followed after Josie, Penelope answered, “You’re in luck, I think we happen to have one, because my mom bought a pack of four I think. They should be under the sink.”

Josie waited until Penelope rooted around under the sink before she finally spoke, “I know this is random, but I appreciate you trusting me enough to open up to me last night. I’m sure it wasn’t easy, but I just wanted you to know that I’m always here to listen if you want to open up again.” 

She almost instantly regretted speaking when she saw Penelope tense at her words, and when the raven-haired girl stood up with a toothbrush in hand, there was a thoughtful look on her face.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Raising an eyebrow at the request, Josie answered, “Yeah, of course. What is it?”

Not making eye contact with Josie, Penelope was hesitant to answer before she finally questioned, “I really don’t want to sound like a dick, but how are you so nice and thoughtful, almost like akin to light; and your sister is so uncaring about everyone else, similar to darkness?”

Josie didn’t know if she should be angry at the question because of what Penelope thought of Lizzie, so a silence broke out between the two; Josie busy trying to work through all of her thoughts. As it stood, she was processing the fact that Penelope thought of her as a light, and a part of her wondered if that was hinting at something more, but she derailed that train of thought before it left the station because she had just gotten Penelope to admit they were friends. In fact, she was so lost in her train of thought that she almost didn’t hear Penelope nervously talking again.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that. Just act like I never said anything.”

Looking at Penelope, Josie waited until Penelope looked up at her before she finally broke her silence, “Don’t be sorry; it’s a valid question, it’s just that no one has ever had the nerve to ask it.” Josie closed her eyes for a second as she gathered her thoughts for what she wanted to say, hating that she was about to voice these thoughts, but also so glad she was finally going to be able to voice them. Opening her eyes, Josie saw that Penelope was still looking at her, waiting for an answer.

“I’ve always looked after Lizzie. No matter what, I’ve always cared for her and she’s rarely returned the favor. I guess I just give and give when it comes to her and I never get anything in return. She has really only returned the favor when it’s convenient for her. She’s my sister though, and I love her, so I never tried to do anything about it.”

Josie waited for Penelope to say something in response, watching as Penelope seemed to be mulling over everything she said. And if Josie thought the thoughtful look on Penelope’s face was cute, she stored that knowledge away to deal with for a later date. 

Penelope’s response never came, however, as Penelope’s mom poked her head into the bathroom and said, “You two need to hurry up or else you’ll be late for school, and while I wouldn’t be upset if you were late Penny, I don’t want Josie’s parents to be made at me for making her late.”

“Mom!” Penelope exclaimed, turning to look at her mom, “I thought I asked you not to call me that anymore!”

Penelope’s mom just smiled at her daughter before continuing on with the topic she had originally brought up, “Alright, but leave Josie alone so she can get ready, because by the looks of it, you still need to find an outfit unless you plan on wearing your pajamas to school today.”

“Okay, okay. I’m on it,” Penelope said, sending an apologetic glance towards Josie, “I promise we can continue our conversation later, because I do have a response.”

And with that, Penelope walked out of the bathroom, but not before leaving the pack of toothbrushes on the counter for Josie to pick from.

\--------------------------

They were in the car on their way to school when Penelope turned to Josie—who was driving—and finally said what she wanted to say back when they had been in the bathroom.

“What you said earlier, it sounds like you always have to be the strong twin,” Penelope paused as if grappling for the right words, “It’s not possible to be strong all the time; sometimes we break and are weak, and you need someone who knows you to be there to be the strong one to help you put the pieces back together. You can’t go your whole life always trying to be strong because when you finally break, it can be catastrophic, especially if you don’t have anyone there for you.”

Josie shot a glance over at Penelope to see that Penelope’s gaze had shifted towards looking out the windshield. Focusing her attention back on driving, Josie assumed Penelope must have been speaking from experience—probably her relationship with Liv—because Penelope’s words seemed so exact. Putting her faith in her assumption, Josie replied, “I guess it’s a good idea we decided to be there for each other.”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” Penelope echoed, a comfortable silence proceeding to take over the car.

\--------------------------

Josie was nervous to walk into homeroom, because she knew her sister would corner her. Sure, she knew it would partially be her fault because she had ignored every single one of Lizzie’s texts since she had left home, but that didn’t mean she was looking forward to it. For once she had looked after herself before making sure Lizzie was okay, and as nice as it was to do that, there was a part of her that felt guilty. But then there was Penelope’s voice in her head telling her that what she was feeling was valid too, and it made the guilt a little less intense.

As if sensing Josie’s turmoil, Penelope was walking towards her with Hope following behind her.

“So has our circle expanded to include someone else?” Hope asked as her and Penelope reached Josie.

Lightly shoving Hope, Penelope answered her, “That’s entirely up to her if she wants to deal with your bullshit.” Then, focusing on Josie, Penelope spoke again, “You’re sure you’re okay to go through with school today Jojo?”

There was that nickname again, one Josie usually hated—despised really—but when Penelope said it, it sounds like the best thing Josie had ever heard. That’s why she had yet to correct Penelope about the nickname, but she knew that Penelope didn’t realize her thoughts on the nickname. Rather, she offered a small smile in response as she replied, “I’ll be fine, and if not, we have the same schedule anyways. And I’m cool with joining your circle if that’s okay with you.”

“I’m glad to hear,” Hope said as she started walking backwards away from them, “Now, if you don’t mind I’m going to my homeroom before I’m late. You two better behave!”

Josie watched as Penelope glared after Hope, causing her to ask, “What did she mean by that?” A part of her worried that maybe Hope thought something was going on between them similar to Penelope’s mom, because they had just become friends and she didn’t want anything to ruin that fact. If that was because she felt more for Penelope than simple platonic feelings, she would never admit it because she was just grateful to have Penelope’s friendship.

“It’s nothing, just Mikaelson being annoying,” Penelope answered, shifting her gaze back on Josie as she concluded, “We better get to homeroom, though, because I really don’t want to get a tardy. And hey, if Lizzie says anything or makes a scene, I got your back.”

Feeling her face get warm at the onsetting blush at how Penelope was ready to defend her so quickly, Josie looked down at the ground as she started walking towards their homeroom, waiting for Penelope to get beside her before she responded, “I’ll hold you to that.”

“And I promise that the offer stands for as long as we’re friends.” Penelope quickly replied before she walked into their homeroom.

Josie was quick to follow, trying to figure out what had shifted in their dynamic that Penelope was suddenly acting so caring and protecting of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel like my writing style has changed so much since i've started this work, and i think it's for the better. looking back at early chapters when i have to double check something, i can just see a difference in the way i write and it feels good seeing the progress i've made. i hope you guys enjoyed the shift in perspective though! i know this is a story about penelope, but there is just something i love about writing in josie's perspective for fics, which is why this chapter was through hers. i might write a few more through hers throughout the rest of this work, because i kinda like the idea of keeping what penelope is feeling a secret, so we shall see. well, as always you can find me spamming the tl on twitter @legayseas  
i'll see you all next time! until then, stay safe!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> howdy everyone! i am here with this update that was started because someone on twitter told me i needed to update, so enjoy!

“Look who finally decided to show up,” Lizzie’s voice snidely rang out as she watched her sister walk into the classroom after Penelope, “Nice of you to finally join us.”

Penelope knew she had promised Dr Saltzman that she wouldn’t say anything mean to Lizzie after the other day, but the way Lizzie spoke to Josie just made something inside of her snap. Sure, maybe the feeling was bolstered when she saw the hurt look flash across Josie’s face, but she reasoned she was just being a good friend as she opened her mouth to defend Josie. It totally didn’t have to do with the fact that she had woken up early to her holding Josie in her arms, but she had pretended to be asleep until her alarm had gone off, acting as if she knew nothing even when internally her heart rate had quickened at the contact.

“Do you really think you have the right to chastise your sister for the fact that she prioritized her feelings for once? I get that you were upset, but Josie was too. She is a real human being with real human emotions, but she bottles them up so that she can be there for you!”

“Pen…” Josie quietly said, placing a hand on Penelope’s shoulder to try and get the raven haired girl to stop fighting her twin.

A part of her knew she should’ve stopped there when Josie put a hand on her shoulder, but Penelope was too upset over the whole thing to back down as she stared at Lizzie to continue speaking, “Not everything is about you Lizzie. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard someone tell you that, but it’s true. People can’t always be there for you to constantly give and give without anything in return.”

“You don’t even know anything about me,” Lizzie shot back, her gaze not faltering as she met Penelope’s stare, “You’ve been in this town for what? Two minutes and you think you know everything about me and my sister? Think again Park. If Josie had a problem, she would say something to me, right Jo?”

Josie didn’t even get the chance to respond as Mr Williams realized the disturbance in his homeroom and had walked over to scold them, “Look, girls I’m sure whatever this is, it isn’t that important. Let it go before I send you to the office which I am sure neither of you want.”

It was as if a switch had flipped inside Lizzie as she went from ready to fight Penelope to smiling sweetly at Mr Willims as she replied, “Of course not. We’ll make sure it won’t happen again.”

“Yeah,” Penelope echoed, averting her eyes towards the floor, knowing her mom would be upset if she was sent to the office.

“Good that’s what I thought,” Mr Williams stated, nodding his head as he walked back to his desk.

Once Mr Williams was gone, Penelope finally sat down in her seat and looked up at Josie as she apologized, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to almost get you sent to the office Jojo. And I’m sorry for not stopping when you tried to get me to; I just couldn’t stand to see her treat you like that even if she is your sister.” 

Penelope was confused when Josie crouched down beside her desk instead of sitting in her usual desk by Lizzie, but she didn’t think about it too much as Josie started speaking.

“Hey, it’s fine. I appreciate you standing up for me. You’ve stood up more for me this entire school year than anyone has for me in my whole life.”

A sad smile appeared and Josie’s face as she said the last sentence, so Penelope tried to change the subject as she asked, “Do you maybe want to meet up in the auditorium at lunch to hang out? I know we have every class together, but we could actually talk at lunch.”

“How about I raise you one better?” Josie countered, the smile on her face becoming more genuine, “How about you come sit with me at lunch, maybe meet some other people that go here.”

Penelope was hesitant to reply, having no clue if that would mean sitting at a table with Lizzie, so she was grateful when Josie seemed to sense her hesitation and continue speaking.

“Don’t worry, I don’t sit with Lizzie. I don’t really fall into her circle of friends, at least not anymore ever since she fell in with the popular kids.”

“Consider me there then,” Penelope conceded after a moment, knowing there was no way she would have been able to say no to Josie. She accredited it to the fact that she was just trying to make Josie feel better with everything going on, completely ignoring how she felt a warmth radiate through her body when Josie smiled at her, almost as if she was basking in the rays of the sun.

Neither girl said anything after that as Mr Williams started taking attendance and discussing upcoming events at the school, specifically that homecoming tickets would be going on sale in two weeks.

\--------------------------

When the bell rang, signalling the end of sixth period, Penelope gathered her books and waited for Josie to do the same since she had no idea where she would be going in the cafeteria.

“Are you sure you’re okay with sitting at my table at lunch?” Josie suddenly asked as she was putting her notebook away, doubt clouding her features, “I realize I never asked if you were okay with it.”

“It’s okay with me, don’t worry,” Penelope replied, smiling when she saw Josie’s face light up at her words, “You were right when you said I needed to know more people.”

“Awesome. We should probably get to lunch then,” was all Josie said as she started to walk towards the door of the classroom with Penelope right behind her.

Once they were in the hall, Penelope decided to broach the topic of purchasing homecoming tickets, “I know it’s two weeks away, but I was wondering if it would be cool if I bought your homecoming ticket for you. Considering I got you into this mess and all.”

“I wouldn’t call it a mess, and I’m capable of paying for my ticket. You don’t have to buy mine,” Josie answered as she started down the stairs.

Walking down the stairs behind Josie, Penelope corrected herself, “I don’t have to, but I want to. Even if this isn’t a mess, I still asked you in a sense so I want to buy your ticket. It just seems right to me.”

Looking over her shoulder for a second to look at Penelope, Josie gave in, “Fine, you can buy my ticket.” Turning so she was facing forward again, Penelope missed the smile that formed on Josie’s face as she added, “But only if you let me repay the favor one day. Lunch at the Grille, getting ice cream, something like that.”

“It’s a deal, even though you don’t have to repay me,” Penelope replied as the noise from the cafeteria grew louder the closer they approached. Deciding to change the topic, she went on to ask, “So who all sits at your table?”

“You’ll find out soon enough, but you do know MG,” Josie said, raising her voice a little bit to be heard over the increasing noise, “And of course Hope, which I’m sure she has mentioned.”

“Yeah, of course,” Penelope said, her voice getting slightly distant as she thought about the previous day and how Hope said she should come to lunch a day. She was specifically thinking about how Hope said she would like one person at the table, wondering what that could’ve been alluding to. Clearing her throat, Penelope continued speaking, “She named a few people that sit at your table. She mentioned someone named Maya a few times.”

“Yeah! Her and Maya seem to be becoming friends. Her twin Ethan sits with us,” Josie trailed off towards the end of her sentence before explaining, “He’s the one that asked me to homecoming. If I’m being honest, I think there’s someone he wants to ask more, he’s just scared of what everyone else might think.”

Nodding as she had a guess as to what Josie was trying to get across, Penelope replied, “Well may he gather the courage to ask whoever that may be.”

By this point the two had approached a table, Josie in the lead with Penelope behind her. Stepping to the side so that Penelope was visible, Josie said, “Hey guys, not all of you know her, so this is Penelope. I convinced her to sit with us today.”

Penelope could see that Hope was sitting there with a mischievous expression on her face before she commented, “Seems you’ve changed your mind since yesterday’s declaration that you wouldn’t be sitting here anytime soon.”

Everyone looked at Hope and then back at Penelope, confused as to what Hope meant, including Josie who had an unreadable expression on her face.

Glowering at Hope as she tried to not think about how everyone at the table was staring at her, Penelope explained, “What can I say? Sometimes declarations need to be amended when certain situations happen. This happened to be one of them.” Unsure of where to sit, she just continued to awkwardly stand there while every processed what had just happened. 

“Regardless of whatever this is you two are talking about, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Kaleb,” Kaleb voiced, breaking the silence that had seemed to fall over the table.

Everyone else was quick to follow with their own introductions.

“Yeah, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Maya.”

“What they said. I’m Ethan.”

“And I’m Jed.”

“I guess that leaves me, I’m Jade.”

Making a mental note of who everyone was, Penelope realized a few of them were in some of her classes: Jade was in her Advanced Physics and Organic Chemistry class; Maya was in her Geography class; and Jed was in her study hall, AP English, and calculus class. The only two she didn’t seem to have class with was Kaleb and Ethan since. After a brief second of her running through all the names one more time, she answered everyone at the table, “It’s nice to meet you all. I recognize some of you from classes.”

MG hadn’t introduced himself since Penelope knew who he was, but he did speak up after Penelope finished speaking, “Well, are you two going to sit down or not?”

“MG, don’t be ridiculous, of course they are. Josie was just introducing her,” Jade remarked, hitting MG’s shoulder lightly, “Plus I’m sure Penelope doesn’t know where to sit, especially since Alyssa and Kym are still in line for lunch.”

“Oh my god, Jade you’re right! The idea completely went out of my head,” Josie exclaimed, turning to look at Penelope, “You can sit beside me, because I think that that’s the last open seat.” Moving toward the middle of the table, Josie sat down beside Jade, and Penelope followed her, ultimately sitting in between Josie and Jed.

Both girls had brought their lunch to school, so they didn’t have to wait in line for it, unlike everyone else at the table that had had to, including those still in line.

Penelope wasn’t sure what to do since she really didn’t know anyone at the table except Hope—who seemed to be in an intense discussion with Maya—so she settled for taking in what was happening around her. 

The first thing she overheard was a part of what Hope was telling Maya.

“You just have to ask her out. You’ll never know until you shoot your shot. Now we better quit talking about it since she’s coming back to the table.

Penelope turned to see that two girls were approaching the table with their trays in hand. One sat beside Kaleb, and the other beside Maya. She observed how Hope shot a glance at the girl beside Maya before nudging Maya. Turning her attention away from whatever it was that was about to happen with Maya and the girl beside her, Penelope focused her attention on Josie who was speaking to Jade.

“So how is Inez? I’m still upset she didn’t get this lunch period with us this year, and since I don’t have any classes with her, I never get to see her.”

Jade chuckled at what Josie said as she replied, “Inez is great. I’ll have to tell her you miss her at lunch, even though you have full capabilities of doing that yourself.”

Penelope watched as Josie deflated for a second almost as if she had realized something, but the brunette seemed to quickly steel over her features as she replied to Jade in a despondent way.

“Yeah, I know. I just have a lot on my plate right now. I’m sure I’ll talk to her at some point though.”

Penelope glanced at Jade to see that she seemed to be studying Josie as if sensing the shift in Josie’s mood, but she didn’t press Josie on it, instead Jade replied, “We’ll all just have to plan a day to hangout like we did over the summer. Maybe next weekend or something since this weekend would probably be too last minute.

“That would be fun. I’m sure everyone would come,” Josie answered, turning her attention to Penelope as she asked, “How’s it going over here?”

“It’s going good,” Penelope started as she lowered her voice to continue, “What about you though? There’s a lot going on in your head that you’ve repressed all day and it’s taking its toll on you.”

“I’m fine, don’t worry. I just don’t want to break down in school, so it’s easier to ignore everything,” Josie replied, shifting her gaze to the table, unable to make eye contact with Penelope.

Before Penelope could say anything in response, the girl sitting beside Kaleb seemed to notice her and decided to introduce herself.

“I am so sorry I didn’t realize you were here. You must be Penelope. I’m Alyssa.”

The girl beside Maya also introduced herself after realizing Penelope was at the table, “I’m Kym, Kaleb’s little sister and the only underclassmen that’s allowed to sit here because of that fact.”

“It’s nice to officially meet both of you,” Penelope greeted, “I think both of you are in my AP English class.”

“Yes we are! It’s honestly my favorite class of the day even though Kym disagrees, but junior year is also a bitch so that might be why,” Alyssa answered for both her and Kym.

Rolling her eyes, Kym countered, “Ignore my brother’s girlfriend. She apparently has forgotten that she was the one who talked me into taking the class with her even though she knows I absolutely hate English classes.”

“I told you not to listen to her Kym,” Kaleb commented, as he looked at his sister.

Interjecting before anyone else said anything, Penelope offered, “English is actually my favorite subject, and I love reading over people’s work so I can always look over your papers if you want me to.”

“Oh my god! Really?! I would love that! You are truly a life saver,” Kym proclaimed, “I might not fail that class after all.”

It was Hope’s turn to add her own thoughts as she said, “I really don’t understand how you guys are going to handle two English classes. One is too many for me. Art is where it’s at.”

“That’s the first smart thing you’ve said all week Mikaelson,” Ethan joked, moving out of the way when Hope threw her straw wrapper at him.

“He has a point Hope,” Jed spoke up, defending Ethan, “All the art classes are an easy A, even though I am also in two English classes which blows.” 

“You’re the dummy who thought he could handle—what was it you said—oh yes, ‘expanding your knowledge of literature and improving upon your writing skills,’” Ethan recalled, laughing when Jed just glared at him.

It was this interaction that Penelope realized just what Josie meant about Ethan wanting to ask someone else to homecoming. She could tell just by the way Ethan interacted with Jed and vice versa; there was definitely something there between the two guys even if neither was ready to admit it.

Settling into the rhythm of conversation at the lunch table, Penelope got used to how everyone at the table interacted with one another and for a time she actually found herself enjoying herself; she could see herself getting close to these people and befriending them, which she realized all too quickly would be dangerous based upon past experiences. Once she realized this, she found herself withdrawing from the conversation, giving her the opportunity to see that Josie also seemed to be withdrawn from the conversation. It seemed that Josie was busy writing something in a notebook that Penelope could only guess was a journal of some kind. When the period was finally over, Penelope waited for Josie to be ready to go, but instead she told Penelope to get to class because she had to go talk to her father about something. Frowning, Penelope had just nodded and walked off to eighth period, wondering if Josie was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so halfway through this chapter i realized almost everything has happened within the same week (which also led to me going back and fixing some stuff so the timeline made sense) and i have come to the conclusion that i need to learn how to time stuff. because omg, so much happened to poor penelope and josie just in the span of one week, like that was just cruel of me to do. so moving forward, i am hoping to get better at spacing major events and hopefully jumps ahead in time a few days so that this fic doesn't take 3 years to write if i include every single day. also this sentence is just a note for my purposes that the day of the week in this chapter is friday, so the hellish week is finally over for them, so maybe we'll move onto somewhat happier things, but not really because i will not be the legacies writers where i ignore emotions and traumatic events of characters.
> 
> anyways, i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and the introduction of some more characters who i definitely plan to keep including just for chaos and to add to the complexity (probably not the right word but idk what word i'm looking for) of the story. as you can see, i'm trying to establish certain couples in this fic, but will they work out? that is to be determined. guess that just means you'll have to keep reading to find out who ends up with who. as always, you can find me on Twitter @legayseas for chaos involving my writing or just anything in general because i tweet a lot about really random things. i hope you are all staying healthy and safe!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i swear this isn't a filler chapter. some stuff actually happens even if it's to setup for the next chapter

Penelope didn’t hear from Josie until Sunday afternoon. It came in the form of a text when she was over at Hope’s house.

**Josie:** Hey, can I come over?

“Is your lady love finally texting you?” Hope mockingly asked, moving to try and take Penelope’s phone.

Yanking her phone back, Penelope glared at Hope, “If you’re referring to Josie, yes, she texted me.”

“It’s about time,” Hope stated, “I was getting tired of you moping about how you hadn’t heard from you. What does she want?”

“I wasn’t moping,” Penelope defended, furrowing her brow at Hope’s implication, “And it’s none of your business what she wants, but she asked if she could come over.”

Hope didn’t say anything right away, but after a moment she replied, “I don’t feel like getting ditched by you, so tell her to come here. She’s nice, I like her.”

“I would never ditch you. That would be a low move, and I’m not about that,” Penelope voiced, confused about why Hope thought she would’ve ditched her just because Josie texted, “But since you offered, I’ll tell her to come here.”

Unlocking her phone once more, she sent back a reply.

**Penelope:** I’m at Hope’s right now, but she said you could over. I guess she finds you nice or something.

“I’m a giver, what can I say?” Hope rhetorically asked, shrugging her shoulders for emphasis.

Shaking her head at Hope as she laughed at her, Penelope watched as three little bubbles popped up as Josie was typing a reply to her. It was about ten seconds later when a reply showed up.

**Josie: ** I don’t want to intrude upon you two hanging out. I can just talk to you another time.

Penelope’s heart sank at Josie’s response, but she quickly thought of a solution and sent back a reply.

**Penelope: ** You wouldn’t be intruding, trust me. Hope was the one who suggested you come here. And if you’re allowed, you can always stay at my house tonight so you can tell me whatever it is you need to.

“So is she coming?” Hope drawled out, looking at Penelope curiously.

“I’m not sure. I’m still trying to convince her she wouldn’t be intruding if she came over,” Penelope answered, before reading Josie’s reply.

**Josie:** I like that plan. Where does Hope live?”

Looking up at Hope, Penelope asked, “What’s your address?”

“Just give me your phone, it’ll be quicker,” Hope answered, holding out her hand for Penelope’s phone.

Studying Hope’s face for any hint of mischief, Penelope reluctantly handed over her phone, “Fine. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

“Please, I’m not the one who managed to cook up a scheme where you somehow had a date to homecoming,” Hope shot back as she typed in her address on Penelope’s phone and sent the text. Handing the phone back, she said, “Here, as you can see I didn’t do anything.”

“I guess you have a point there,” Penelope remarked before asking Hope about something she had been curious about since Friday, “Were you trying to get Maya to ask Kym out on Friday?”

Hope paled at the question, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Hope, I overheard you telling her to ‘shoot her shot,’” Penelope shot back, doing air quotes around what Hope had said two days prior.

“Alright, fine,” Hope conceded, “I didn’t tell you this, but Maya likes Kym and wants to ask her out, but is too scared to. I’m trying to get her to actually ask her though, because I also happen to know Kym wishes Maya would ask her out.”

“How do you know so much stuff already?” Penelope questioned, astounded by the information Hope already seemed to have, “You’ve only been going to this school for two weeks.”

“True, but unlike you, I haven’t been avoiding making more than one friend,” Hope retorted, going on to note, “Although that seems to be changing thanks to a certain someone who is on their way here.”

Feeling her face flush with warmth with what she thought was a blush, Penelope looked away from Hope as she replied, “Only because she needs someone to be there for her right now. I do try to be a good person.” 

“Okay, I believe you,” Hope responded, not pushing the matter any further, instead asking, “So does Josie coming over mean I don’t have to take you home later?”

“I would assume so,” Penelope remarked, finally looking back up at Hope, confident that her blush had subsided. She really didn’t know why Hope’s comment had elicited that response, but she credited it to just being annoyed by the comment and turned away so she wouldn’t fuel the fire for future remarks.

“Good, I didn’t want to drive you home anyways,” Hope deadpanned, looking at Penelope as seriously as she could.

Rolling her eyes, Penelope responded, “You’re such an ass.”

\--------------------------

“So how goes the planning for homecoming?” Hope asked, a while after Josie had arrived at her house, explaining further with, “Penelope refuses to tell me anything about it.”

“Because you never asked!” Penelope exclaimed, throwing her pencil at Hope who promptly caught it.

“Regardless,” Hope drawled out, rolling her eyes at Penelope, “She won’t tell me about it, so you’re the next best place to get info from.” 

“So I’m your second pick. I see how it is,” Josie attempted to say in a serious manner, but ended up starting to laugh halfway through before finally answering Hope’s question, “It’s going. I showed Penelope my dress and now she said she would work on matching a suit to it. Past that, we really haven’t spoken about it other than tickets.”

“Ah, so Penelope is slacking off?” Hope questioned, wording it more as a statement than a question however.

“She is not. I’m certain she has everything under control.”

“Yeah, I have everything under control,” Penelope stated, offering a small smile towards Josie for the vote of confidence, because she really didn’t have anything planned. She knew she should get on top of buying a suit, but homecoming was a little over a month away; the second weekend in October to be exact, and it was only the beginning of September.

Hope started laughing at that, unable to stop for several seconds before Penelope spoke.

“What’s so funny?”

Her laughter subsided, Hope answered, “Oh nothing. Just laughing about things, that’s all.”

“We were...just talking about homecoming though? What’s so funny about that?” Penelope’s confusion was evident in her voice as Hope just shook her head in response.

“Penelope has a point there,” Josie pointed out, equally as confused as Penelope.

“You two aren’t going to let this go, are you?” Hope asked, and when both girls shook their heads in response, she explained, “I was just laughing at how you basically said the same thing as Jo, Penelope. It just reminded me of something that I found funny.”

“God, you are so weird,” Penelope remarked, before questioning rhetorically, “Is it too late to reevaluate my decision to be your friend?”

What neither girl knew was that Hope had been reminded of how two people who like each other act, much like how her parents acted with one another every now and then. She was fully aware of how in denial Penelope was of her feelings, but she couldn’t gauge if Josie was in denial or not.

\--------------------------

“So what did you want to talk about?” Penelope asked once they had settled in her room, both sitting on the bed.

Not looking at Penelope, Josie hesitantly asked a question in response to Penelope’s, “Can I be honest with you?”

Uncertain as to why Josie asked that, Penelope replied, “Yes?” She was even more uncertain when Josie let out a sigh of relief, but she waited for the brunette to speak.

“I didn’t really want to talk about anything,” Josie admitted as she finally looked at Penelope, “I just needed to get out of my house. I couldn’t do it anymore even though I was trying not to bother you this weekend with all my problems, but you’re the only one who knows.”

Pulling Josie into a side-hug the best she could, Penelope soothingly answered, “You just could’ve said that you know? I wouldn’t have judged you. And why were you trying not to bother me?”

Penelope could feel Josie relax into the hug, so she pulled her in a little closer before Josie eventually replied.

“I just thought that I shouldn’t bombard you with my issues again. You have your own life to live with your own issues.”

Releasing Josie and flopping back onto her bed, Penelope ran a hand through her hair as she tried to gather her thoughts, “That doesn’t mean you have to keep it all inside. You can always talk to me about it. I know my initial behavior towards you doesn’t show that, but I’m hoping I can change that.”

“I know,” Josie sighed, turning so she could look at Penelope as she changed the topic, “Can we watch a movie?”

Studying Josie’s face in an attempt to decipher how she was feeling, Penelope was left stumped by the guarded expression Josie seemed to be wearing, so she conceded, “Yeah, just let me shower first. You can choose a movie while I am.” 

A moment paused before Penelope remembered what Josie had said the other night about showers, so she quickly blurted out, “Unless you need to shower too. Because then you can go first so that you’re guaranteed hot water.”

Laughing at Penelope’s sudden word vomit, Josie answered, “I’m good. I actually showered before I left my house.” Once her laughter subsided, Josie warned, “And just so you know, we will be watching another Disney movie.”

“As long as it isn’t Frozen, I’m alright with that,” Penelope remarked as she grabbed some pajamas and walked out of her room to the bathroom.

\--------------------------

Josie had chosen the movie  _ Brother Bear _ for them to watch, and neither girl really spoke the entire time through the movie. Penelope figured Josie would talk when she was ready, and she wasn’t going to push it. It was at the end of the movie, however, that Penelope decided to break the silence between them.

“That was really deep for a kids movie. It really makes you question things about what truly is good and evil, which is entirely subjective to each individual person.”

“I’m glad you’re analyzing the movie like that,” Josie admitted, pausing before she says her next words, “I kinda picked this movie for a reason.”

Frowning in confusion, Penelope looked at Josie and asked, “And why is that?”

Sighing, Josie looked away from Penelope before she finally spoke, her voice slightly shaky, “It’s stupid really, but this is the movie Lizzie and I would always watch when our parents would fight when we were little. I guess it just became a comfort film over time, but I never realized how much the theme applied to what was going on between my parents.”

“It’s not stupid,” Penelope answered, her voice gentle as she carefully chose her words, “Sometimes when stuff happens we have a way of seeing stuff in a new light that we never would’ve been able to had something not happened.”

Josie just nodded before bluntly stating, “My dad moved out today. Lizzie was with friends, but I watched him pack his stuff up, and then he only took the necessities to the hotel he’s staying at. He said he’d be back for the rest once he found an apartment.”

Penelope didn’t know what to say to that, but she knew this is probably what had been bothering Josie all day. It broke her heart to see how Josie had buried everything, but she had no clue what someone was supposed to say to someone in this kind of situation, so silence broke out once more between them. Penelope who always seemed to know what to say was at a loss for words as she stared at Josie for any sign of crying.

It was a minute or so later when Penelope quietly said, “That sucks Jojo. I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Josie replied, her voice on the verge of cracking as she continued, “I didn’t really mean to dump it on you.”

Processing Josie’s words, Penelope truthfully answered, “Even if you didn’t mean to, I’m glad you did. You shouldn’t bottle up all your dark emotions. And hey,” Penelope nudged Josie so that she would look at her before she continued, “The door is always open if you need a place to crash, even if I’m not here. Don’t tell her I said this, but my mom does make great company. She tends to be insightful about things, but that might just be because of all the cases she’s worked.”

Josie smiled at Penelope’s remark about her mom before responding, “Thank you for that offer. I’ll probably take you up on it at some point. And don’t worry, your secret about your mom is safe with me. Although I didn’t know she was a lawyer.”

“She is,” Penelope confirmed, going on to reveal, “It’s a part of why we moved here. She knows a few lawyers in the area and they offered her a job. They’re angling to get her voted in as the DA, but we had to establish residency here before she can run.”

“Oh wow,” Josie breathed out, shifting on the bed so that she was sitting up and turning to look back at Penelope, “It sounds like Mystic Falls will be your home for a while then.”

Sitting up to be closer to eye-level as Josie, Penelope remarked, “I don’t think so.” As she watched a hurt expression flash across Josie’s face, Penelope explained what she meant, “I never viewed home as a place. I guess I’m a hopeless romantic in the fact that I always viewed home as a person. Although I don’t know where I fall with that belief now; I haven’t given it much thought.”

“You don’t necessarily have to fall anywhere,” Josie observed, a distant expression on her face, “Sometimes we just have to take a step back from everything for a little bit—whether it be to protect ourselves or to reflect—and then make a decision when we’re finally ready to face what has happened if we still feel the same.”

“Sounds like we both have a lot to work through,” Penelope acknowledged, grabbing the remote off her nightstand and turning her TV off.

“So it would seem,” Josie echoed, glancing at her phone for the time, Penelope also glancing at Josie’s phone and seeing a bunch of notifications from Lizzie.

For a brief second Penelope pondered whether she should ask about it, but shook the idea off not wanting to appear as if she was creeping. Instead she pointed out, “It’s getting late. We should probably get to sleep. No need to be tired for school tomorrow.” 

Penelope moved to get off the bed—not wanting to have a repeat of the other morning, especially since it kept popping up in her mind at random times—but was stopped when Josie’s quiet voice rang out.

“I know this is going to sound weird and I know it’s against your mom’s rules, but could you maybe sleep in your bed with me. I just don’t want to be alone.”

And Penelope couldn’t say no to Josie’s pleading expression and tone as she found herself caving and climbing back into her bed, “Fine, but if I get in trouble, I get to pick the movie we watch next time.”

“Consider it a deal then,” Josie answered as she climbed under the blankets on Penelope’s bed.

Penelope followed suit, making sure to put some distance between her and Josie, but not enough that the brunette would question it as they bid goodnight to one another.

And that’s how several more nights went by that week. Josie would come over after school—while also bringing Penelope home—and the two would do homework before ultimately watching a movie together after dinner and  _ Jeopardy _ . Each night—Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday—Penelope let Josie pick the movie, and each time it was a different animated Disney movie. But unlike Sunday night, neither girl opened up about anything, instead opting for simple conversation about school. Penelope could see that Josie was struggling with everything, but she wasn’t going to force Josie to talk if she wasn’t ready. And each night they managed to fall asleep in Penelope’s bed together, and much like the first morning, Penelope somehow found herself holding Josie in her arms each time. She did what she did the first time, however, and waited until Josie woke up and moved out of the embrace. She would never admit to enjoying the feeling, because doing so would be opening herself up to heartbreak again, and she couldn’t do that, not while the wounds on her heart were still healing. 

What neither girl knew, though, was that Penelope’s mom was entirely aware of them sleeping in the same bed, but she just knew how in denial her daughter was about her feelings, so she didn’t talk to Penelope about breaking the one rule she had. She figured she would have to in time, but it wasn’t time to yet. The only time her and Penelope had talked about Josie was when Penelope approached her on Tuesday night and asked if they could go and look for a suit on Friday to match Josie’s dress, to which she was quick to agree to. Shopping with her daughter was always a treat, especially when Penelope added the additional tidbit that Hope would be joining them on their excursion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg look who decided to advance the timeline!!! THAT'S RIGHT!!!! IT WAS MEEEEEEE. finally decided to move somewhat away from the sigle week that took like 5 chapters, and covered almost an entire one in one chapter. look at me trying to learn how to pace. and if you view this chapter as filler, i'm sorry. it originally had a different purpose when i planned it, but then my mind said "let's not do that and do this instead" and i was already 2k words in when i realized that this chapter wasn't that exciting. but i promise i will bring some angst, but at least we still have penelope in denial while here mom just sits back and is like :| at the whole thing. but i am looking forward to the interaction that will be Penelope's mom and Hope. also i really need to come up with a name for Penelope's mom (10/10 taking suggestions) so yeah. i hope you enjoyed this chapter and i'll try to be back soon with another one. also i apologize for another long note, but i just like word vomiting of late about my process for writing, so i apologize. stay safe everyone!!!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shoutout to xX_Cole_Xx for giving me the idea for Penelope's mom's name

Penelope regretted inviting Hope along the second her and her mom started talking. She had already been regretting it after Hope had been teasing her about buying Josie’s homecoming ticket all day. So yeah, maybe by the time she was in the car on the way to a store, she was ready to open the door and jump out.

She should’ve known that her mom would get along with Hope. The two were similar in their personality: always acting like they knew something Penelope didn’t know. It drove her up a wall that they would make eye contact in the rearview mirror and then look at Penelope. After the third time she couldn’t take it anymore and finally called them out on it.

“Do I have something on my face? Or am I missing something?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about sweetie,” Penelope’s mom reasoned, chancing a glance in the rearview mirror where she saw Hope trying not to laugh.

“Yes you do. You and Hope keep looking at me, and I want to know why,” Penelope shot back, annoyance creeping into her tone as she looked from her mom to Hope.

Hope met Penelope’s gaze as she deadpanned, “I told your mom about my giant crush on you and now she’s waiting for me to make my move.”

“You know what?” Penelope questioned, ultimately answering the question herself, “I regret even asking.” 

Not letting up, Hope took it a step further as she inquired, “So is that you rejecting me? A bit rude of her, don’t you think Mrs. Park?”

“I’ll say. She could’ve at least clearly stated her feelings,” Penelope’s mom began, “And you can call me Lorelai. I’m not all about formalities. I deal with enough of them at work.”

Penelope just stared at her mom, confused by the lack of formalities she was giving Hope. Her mom had never let any of her friends call her by her first name. Not even Liv, although Penelope always sensed her mom didn’t like her. In retrospect, she probably should’ve figured out the reasoning behind that, but hindsight is always twenty-twenty. She was pulled out of her musing when Hope answered her mom.

“I’ll try to remember, but I know I’ll forget. I’m used to formalities so we’ll see how it goes.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Lorelai responded as she turned into the parking lot of the shopping plaza they were going to, “And here we are. Next stop: finding Penelope a suit that satisfies her taste.”

\--------------------------

Penelope was in the fitting room trying on the third suit of the day when she overheard parts of her mom’s conversation with Hope.

“....think about Josie?”

“I’m not sure….”

“I think she might….”

“....you’re totally right.”

She was trying her hardest to ignore the conversation and focus on the matter at hand, the suit she was currently debating. She had to agree that it would match Josie’s dress well; the pants were black and the jacket was black as well, except for the lapels which were white and outlined in black. There was a little gold chain right under the lapels that held the jacket together if need be, and she was wearing a white dress shirt underneath. As she mulled it over for a few more moments, she picked up a little bit more of her mom’s conversation with Hope.

“....the way they look at each other.”

“I bet it’s something. Probably like….”

“More like one is pining and the other is….”

Deciding she couldn’t take whatever conversation going on any longer, Penelope opened the door to the fitting room, turning to look at her mom and Hope as she asked, “What do we think?”

“I think you look amazing,” Lorelai commented, sincerity laced in her tone.

Penelope just smiled at her mom as she shifted her gaze towards Hope who looked like she was about to say something Penelope would hate, and Penelope was right with that thought with what came out of Hope’s mouth.

“Dang, I wish you were my date. It’s not too late to tell Josie to go with someone else, is it?”

“It is too late Hope,” Penelope stated, rolling her eyes at Hope’s antics before adopting a serious tone as she added, “Plus I wouldn’t just ditch her after being the one to say we were going together. With everything going on, I don’t want to add to it.”

By this point, word of Josie’s parents’ divorce had gotten around school and almost everyone was either treating the twins with kid gloves or were avoiding them altogether. If Penelope was being honest, she was the only one who wasn’t acting any different around the Saltzman twins; she was acting the same as she always did. Although some would argue that Penelope was perhaps more protective of Josie than she had been prior, but no one commented on it to Penelope’s face.

Both Hope and Lorelai nodded in understanding at Penelope’s statement, knowing Penelope meant what she said.

“Do we think this is the one?” Penelope inquired, changing the topic so as to not dwell on the matter of Josie and what was going on with her. “Do you think it matches well? And be serious Hope, no witty remarks.”

“Fine, take all the fun out of it,” Hope muttered, raising her hands in a joking defense, “But to answer your questions, I think this is the best one so far, and you seem to really like it. It’s the perfect match for Josie’s dress and it looks amazing on you.”

“Careful Mikaelson, say too many more comments like that and I’ll think you really are in love with me,” Penelope warned.

Stifling a laugh, Lorelai spoke up, “I have to agree with Hope. It does seem the most like you and it matches really well. This suit has my vote, but if you wanted to look around some more, that’s totally alright.”

“I think I’m happy with this one,” Penelope admitted as she looked down at herself in the suit. She did have to agree that it was more her style than the other ones she had tried on, plus Hope was right when she said Penelope really liked it. Looking back up at her mom and Hope, she continued, “This is the one for sure.”

“Awesome. Now go change so I can pay for it,” Lorelai instructed, smiling warmly at her daughter.

“Of course,” Penelope replied, turning to walk back into the dressing room so that she could change.

\--------------------------

Monday during lunch, Penelope wound up heading to the auditorium to eat her lunch. She was in need of the silence provided by the space and was basking in it when—about halfway through the period—Josie’s voice broke the peaceful silence.

“Lunch table finally too much for you?”

Directing her gaze towards where Josie’s voice had come from, Penelope spotted Josie in the doorway before confirming, “Sort of. More like the whole cafeteria, but they’re a part of it.”

“Yeah, I suppose they are,” Josie remarked as she moved closer to where Penelope was sitting, stopping at the bottom of the stairs that led up to where Penelope had chosen to sit. Shoving her hands in her pockets, Josie spoke again, “I’m honestly surprised you haven’t ditched the table sooner for here. I wasn’t expecting you to sit with me—I mean us—past that first day. Everyone likes you, even Alyssa, and she usually has a problem with new people joining our friend group. It took a few days for us to convince her Hope was cool, but she had no problems with you after the first day.”

“What can I say?” Penelope questioned, gesturing in the air with her hands before answering her question, “I guess I’m just cooler than Hope.”

“I guess so,” Josie echoed, her features suddenly turning focused as if remembering why she had come into the auditorium as she offered, “I actually came here to invite you to get ice cream. A bunch of us are going out tonight to this local place. They sent me to see if you were up for it. In fact they insisted I be the one to ask you.”

Frowning at why everyone insisted Josie be the one to invite her, Penelope shook her concerns away with the thought that Josie was the closest one to her which she voiced, “Probably because we’ve become pretty decent friends over the last week or so. You’re the one that knows me best, and to be honest, I think Hope’s a little jealous of that fact.” 

If Penelope saw how Josie’s face briefly fell at the use of the word ‘friend,’ she pushed it out of her thoughts, instead continuing to speak about the venture of going for ice cream.

“I’m up for it. It would probably be good to see everyone outside of a school setting. What made them pick a Monday night to get ice cream?”

“Well the place features special flavors each week and they change on Mondays, and this week they have peanut butter which is everyone’s favorite,” Josie answered, her face thoughtful as she added, “I prefer their blueberry though, but I’m the only one so we always go during the week they have peanut butter.”

As if an afterthought, Josie quickly opened her mouth to conclude, “And awesome that you can go. We already discussed driving arrangements, and Jade said you would be able to fit in her car. I’m also going with her, and so is Hope and Inez. You haven’t met her yet, but she’s really nice.”

“I can’t wait then,” Penelope remarked, smiling as she tried not to laugh at how Josie had been rambling before asking, “I know this probably isn’t the best time to ask this, but would it be easier if I went home with you after school?” Explaining further, Penelope continued, “I’m only suggesting it because Jade probably already knows where you live and this would cut down on the driving time. I promise I won’t get into any arguments with your sister too. But if you aren’t okay with this, I won’t push you on it.”

When Josie didn’t say anything right away, Penelope opened her mouth to talk once more, but Josie raised her hand and shook Penelope off as she finally responded, slightly shaky at first, but gaining stability as she continued.

“It is a good idea, but I don’t know. My mom does want to meet you since I’ve been spending a lot of nights at your house, but I don’t know how a car ride with Lizzie would go. I don’t want to-”

“Hey,” Penelope interrupted, her voice calm and soft, “Jade can always pick me up at my house tonight. Or I could go to Hope’s because I’m sure she’ll jump at the chance to antagonize me.”

Silence filled the auditorium as Penelope waited for Josie to say something; but Josie was standing there, biting her lower lip in thought as she debated about what to say. Penelope wished she could know what Josie was thinking, because a part of her thought she might have pushed Josie away with the suggestion of going to her house. She was still mentally kicking herself for it when Josie finally voiced a decision.

“You should come over. It’s bound to happen eventually, so it's probably best to not put it off. My mom is already beginning to think you aren’t a real person since she hasn’t met you. And maybe this will be good, maybe it will be good for me to have someone over. A semblance of normalcy, not that I ever knew what normal was.”

Caught off guard by Josie’s confession of not knowing what normal is, Penelope tried her best to formulate a response, offering a warm smile as she answered, “We’ll just have to make our own normal then.” 

\--------------------------

Much to Penelope’s surprise, Lizzie didn’t say anything when she got in the car at the end of the school day; only receiving glares from the blonde everytime she looked in the rearview mirror. It wasn’t until they were parked in the driveway that Lizzie spoke.

“Jo, can I speak to Penelope alone for a second?”

Josie glanced at her sister, and then in the backseat of the car at Penelope, concern written across her face.

“I’ll be fine,” Penelope assured when she saw Josie looking at her, “Your sister and I are capable of being civil.”

And with that, Josie just nodded and exited the car, sending one last glance at Penelope as she shut her door and went towards the porch.

Now focusing her attention on Lizzie, Penelope inquired, “Why do you want to talk to me?”

“I really don’t want to be speaking to you, but I need to,” Lizzie corrected, turning in her seat so she could look at Penelope face to face as she continued speaking, “I don’t like you in the slightest, but my sister does. As for why, I’ll never understand-”

“Is this going somewhere, or are you just going to hate on me?” Penelope interrupted, annoyance creeping into her tone at how Lizzie only seemed to want to talk about how she didn’t like her.

“It is going somewhere if you would let me finish,” Lizzie shot back, sighing as she did so, “But to get to the point, Josie likes you, and if you so much as hurt her, I will make sure you regret it. She’s been hurt enough by what’s happening with our parents, and I can’t have some random girl hurt her further.”

Lizzie didn’t give Penelope a chance to respond as she got out of the car, slamming her door as she did so, leaving Penelope in a stunned silence.

Penelope was caught off guard by how Lizzie threatened her about possibly hurting Josie, and in that moment, Penelope realized she never wanted to hurt Josie. It was with this realization that she got out of the car and made her way to the house where Josie was waiting for her, a questioning look written across her face.

“What did Lizzie want?” Josie asked as soon as Penelope was in front of her, going on to explain, “She just walked right by me into the house.”

“It was nothing,” Penelope answered, because it’s not like she could really tell Josie what Lizzie had said, even if she wanted to and she really did.

Frowning at Penelope, Josie countered, “She obviously said something, just tell me.” 

Sighing as she quickly tried to come up with a believable lie, Penelope decided on saying, “Someone from the lunch table must’ve mentioned how I offered to look over their papers, because she asked me if I could look over hers when the time comes. I reluctantly agreed, because even though her and I don’t see eye to eye, I do enjoy revising papers.”

“Oh,” was all Josie said, an unreadable expression on her face before looking towards the door and remarking, “We should probably go in and get introductions out of the way.”

And just like Lizzie, Josie didn’t give Penelope a chance to answer as she turned away from Penelope and opened the door, entering into her house.

Penelope followed seconds later, confused by the sudden shift in Josie’s mood, quickly accrediting it to the fact that Josie was probably nervous for her to meet her mom, never thinking it could’ve been that Josie knew that she had lied about what Lizzie had wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is gonna be a short note that just says the next chapter is going to be through Josie's perspective because i miss writing through her perspective. also! i changed my twitter @ to @razzspie because i kinda watched she-ra and wanted an @ that related to the show so uh, yeah. stay hydrated everyone!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM BACK WITH THE UPDATE THROUGH JOSIE'S PERSPECTIVE THAT I INITIALLY FORGOT I WAS DOING SO THEN I HAD TO REWRITE EVERYTHING I HAD HAD DONE AT THAT TIME AND THAT I MADE IMPULSIVE DECISIONS WITH SOME OF THE EVENTS THIS CHAPTER BUT I DIG IT. anyways, enjoy!!!

Josie was already walking towards the living room by the time Penelope was closing the front door. She couldn’t help the uneasy feeling in her stomach that Lizzie had said something to Penelope, something that Penelope wasn’t comfortable sharing with her. And, yeah, she knew it was probably none of her business, but it still bothered her knowing that Penelope had lied about what Lizzie had said to her. It wasn’t hard to see through the lie, because Josie always found herself helping Lizzie write her papers, and so far, Lizzie hadn’t mentioned a paper.

But now, walking towards the living room, Josie felt guilty for not waiting for Penelope, so when she saw that Lizzie was in the midst of talking to their mom, she decided to turn back to see what Penelope was up to, discovering that Penelope was looking around at everything in the house but quickly noticed Josie was looking at her.

She watched as Penelope walked closer, softly inquiring, “Is everything okay?”

And Josie had no clue how to answer that question. It wasn’t like she could accost Penelope about what Lizzie had really said; it would break the trust she was just forming with Penelope and she didn’t want that. So, instead, she opted for a lie herself, hoping it sounded believable as she quietly responded, “Yeah, I guess I’m just nervous about introducing you to my mom. It’s always weird introducing new friends to a parent.” 

Of course Penelope just nodded in what Josie assumed was understanding, appearing as if she bought Josie’s lie. On the other hand, Josie was struggling with her feelings and how using the word ‘friend’ had just seemed out of place when referring to Penelope. Josie was no stranger to these feelings, realizing just how painfully she was crushing on the girl who seemed to want to keep everyone at arm’s length. 

It was then that Josie heard her mom start to speak to her.

“Hey Josie, who’s your friend? I don’t know if I’ve met her.”

Before she could answer, Josie heard Lizzie bitterly mutter, “The she-devil herself.”

Frowning at her sister’s comment that it seemed Penelope hadn’t heard, Josie turned to face her mom as she answered, “Mom, this is Penelope, the girl I told you about.”

“I see,” Josie’s mom began, studying Penelope for a moment before continuing, “I’ve heard a lot of things about you Penelope, mostly all good.”

There was no reprimanding Lizzie for her snarky comment about Penelope, and it annoyed Josie to no end. Lizzie was always getting away with stuff like that, but if she tried to, she would get in trouble for saying something rude. It was a double standard that she was becoming increasingly tired of, but she stifled her growing anger as Penelope started talking to her mom, or at least tried to.

“Well I hope I can show you that I don’t reflect the bad things you’ve heard about me. It’s a pleasure to meet you Ms- uh, Ms….”

There was an audible laugh from Lizzie at Penelope’s blunder, which earned a disapproving look from her mother, much to Josie’s surprise.

“Laughlin,” Her mom finished for Penelope before continuing, “But you can call me Jo if you want. And I’ll hold you to that comment.” Turning her attention to Josie, Jo commented, “You didn’t tell me you were bringing a friend over, especially the one that you’re going to homecoming with!”

“I know Mom,” Josie breathed out, knowing her mom wasn’t mad about, “It’s just that the whole gang is meeting up later to head to the Ranger for ice cream, and Jade offered to take both of us, so we decided it made sense to be in the same place.”

“I’m sorry if it’s a problem Ms Laughlin,” Penelope apologized, before taking the blame, “It was me who suggested I come over.”

“It’s perfectly fine, Penelope,” Jo answered, “I just wasn’t expecting it is all. I was going to order pizza for dinner, is that alright with you?”

“Yes it is,” Penelope replied, “As long as there’s no pepperoni at least, I’m allergic to pork.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Jo stated before asking Josie, “Would you prefer Romeo’s or IVP’s pizza? Lizzie is going somewhere with her friends and is leaving soon, so it’s your pick.”

Josie paused in thought at the two options; she was a fan of both places, but she ultimately found herself deciding, “Romeo’s sounds pretty good, mom. It’s been awhile since we ordered from there anyways.”

“Sounds good. I’ll order it for around five, because you probably aren’t going for ice cream until later,” Jo assumed, looking at Josie for confirmation.

“Yeah, I think Jade is picking us up around six,” Josie answered, thinking back to the plans that had been made at lunch, “That is barring any changes though. You know how my friends are, last minute changes are the norm.”

“I still don’t understand how you guys ever pull off plans,” Lizzie scoffed as she got up off of the couch and walked out of the room, missing the glare Josie sent her way as she left.

Josie glanced back at her mom who seemed to have focused her attention on Penelope, and Josie knew that her mom wanted to ask Penelope questions, so she motioned for Penelope to sit down on the one chair while she took the spot where Lizzie had been sitting.

“So Penelope,” Jo began when both girls had gotten comfortable where they were sitting, “I hear you’re taking my daughter to homecoming.”

Glancing towards Penelope, Josie could see that she was sending a nervous glance in her direction, but Josie just nodded slightly, hoping Penelope would take that as a signal to tell her mom something believable, since she hadn’t really told her mom how it had happened.

“I am,” Penelope affirmed after a beat of silence, before continuing, “If I’m being honest, Josie is an amazing person, and made me feel welcome at Mystic Falls, even if I didn’t show it right away. So I thought it would be a great idea to repay her with a senior homecoming that’ll be impossible to forget. What that entails, however, is still a surprise. She’s been a great friend to me, especially when she had no reason to be, and I just think that you raised a wonderful daughter.”

Josie was caught off guard by what Penelope had said, but she shrugged it off, because after all, Penelope was probably just trying to make a good impression, especially since Lizzie had told their mom all about Penelope. A part of her, though, couldn’t help but wonder if there was a hint of truth in Penelope’s words; a hint that maybe Penelope liked her back.

“It sounds like you care about my daughter,” Jo observed, studying the expression on Penelope’s face, before declaring, “Well I have to go attend to laundry. I’ll let you two go so you can work on homework.”

And Jo stood up and left the living room with that remark, leaving the two girls behind, before they ultimately retreated to Josie’s room to work on some of the assignments they had been given.

\--------------------------

“Jo, I hear you’ve been asking about me,” Inez commented as Josie and Penelope climbed into Jade’s car, continuing with, “My sources tell me you miss me.”

“I wouldn’t go as far to say that,” Josie remarked as she settled into the middle seat, deciding to let Penelope have the end, “I just said I never see you.”

Chuckling at the interaction between Inez and Josie, Jade commented, “Just admit it Jos, you missed Inez, and I mean who wouldn’t? She is kinda rad if I do say so myself.”

“Rad?” Hope quickly questioned, “Who uses the word rad anymore?”

“Apparently Jade,” Penelope answered, garnering an elbow to the side by Josie, which she quickly protested, “What was that for? If anyone should get elbowed it’s Hope. She’s the dumbass who started it.”

Shaking her head, Josie sighed as she responded, “Sometimes I swear that you and Hope act like toddlers when you’re around each other.” She really couldn’t believe how the two acted around each other. All of last week at the lunch table she had watched as the two would randomly start arguing back and forth in the most childish of ways, which of course was met by laughter by everyone at the table. She couldn’t deny that Hope and Penelope seemed to have some type of bond, and she would be lying if it didn’t make her the slightest bit jealous.

“She’s right you two,” Jade inputted as she backed out of Josie’s driveway, “Everyone can attest to that fact, especially since you two argued over the proper spelling of the word ‘gray’ for twenty minutes last Tuesday.”

“It should be spelled with an ‘e’ and anyone who disagrees is wrong!” Penelope exclaimed at the mention of the argument.

Leaning forward to look at Penelope, Hope shot back, “Who in their right mind spells it with an ‘e’? It’s spelled with an ‘a’ and that’s the end of that.”

“How about you two agree to disagree?” Inez suggested as she tried to hold back a laugh at what was happening.

“Jade suggested that last week and it didn’t work,” Josie explained, before repeating what she had told Hope and Penelope last week, “It’s a personal preference as well as a cultural preference. There’s no point in arguing over it when both spellings are accepted.”

Josie was confused as to why Penelope’s face softened at her comment and it was then that she realized what she said might have come off as harsh or annoyed, so she tried to change the topic, “How about we play some music?”

“That is an excellent idea,” Jade responded, directing her next comment towards Inez, “Give Josie the AUX, she always has the best playlists.”

“Okay,” Inez answered, turning in her seat to hand the cord to Josie who took it, “But just let it be known that I’m hurt that you think Josie makes better playlists than me.”

A small smile had formed on Josie’s face at Jade’s comment, because no one really ever told her she was the best at anything, except for Jade, so it was nice to hear every now and again. 

Plugging the AUX cord into her phone, Josie scrolled through the playlists on her phone before ultimately deciding to play her playlist titled _ 2000’s Hits _ that contained a mash-up of everyone’s favorite songs from the 2000s, and even a little into the 2010s.

It was only one beat into the song when Hope commented, “Please tell me this song did not just come on in a car full of people who like girls.”

Looking down at her phone, Josie saw that _ I Kissed A Girl _ was playing, and then she was thrown off by the fact that Hope had just inadvertently admitted to liking girls.

It was Penelope who questioned that fact first, “Wait, you like girls?”

“Uh, yeah?” Hope replied, a questioning hint to her voice, “I thought that at least you would know since I do have a small bi flag in my room.”

“She’s not the most observant,” Josie blurted out, instantly regretting it, because she had been thinking it in reference to the fact that Penelope seemed completely oblivious to how she felt about her. She was regretting it even more when an understanding look flashed across Hope’s face.

“You’re right,” Hope stated, going on to explain, “Something so blatantly obvious could be right in front of her and she wouldn’t notice at all.”

Neither Penelope nor Josie had a chance to say anything as Inez interjected with, “As much as I enjoy your banter, it’s not cool during this song.”

All three girls in the back seat just nodded, settling into silence as Inez turned the radio up, filling the car with the sound of Katy Perry singing.

\--------------------------

As Jade pulled into the packed parking lot, Josie quickly spotted Kaleb’s red car; him, Alyssa, Kym, and MG standing around it talking. She then spotted the Machado twins and Jed walking towards Kaleb’s car.

“Looks like you’re keeping your reputation of being the last one to arrive places,” Inez said to Jade, no hint of anger in her voice, just the tone of a girl telling her girlfriend an obvious fact.

“The day Jade is the first person somewhere is the day the world ends,” Josie remarked, moving to pause the song that was currently playing, “Of course she’s making us all late to keep her status.” 

She really didn’t mind being one of the last ones to show up, because in her mind, she was just happy to be doing stuff with her friends. Especially right now with everything going on between her parents. In fact, a part of her was certain their motivation behind this outing was to take her mind off of things, even if she told Penelope it was because of the weekly flavors, which was partly true.

“Look,” Jade started to explain as she pulled into an open parking spot, “Some things aren’t meant to change, and this is one of them.”

No one said anything as Jade finished parking and shut her car off. Instead, they all climbed out before Hope broke the comfortable silence.

“So how did you guys find out about this place? It’s a decent distance from Mystic Falls.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Penelope stated, looking around as she continued, “Plus it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere.”

Josie stiffened as Jade and Inez glanced at her uncertainly, so after a few seconds as Hope waited for her question to be answered, Josie explained, “My ex, Landon, worked here. So I found out about it through him, and we started getting together here when he worked so I could see him. Plus, we got free ice cream, which in hindsight was the only plus. But it became such a hit among all of us that we still come out here. And trust me, it’s worth it.”

She wasn’t going to admit to the fact that the first few times they had come to the Ranger after her break-up with Landon had hurt; hurt like nothing she had experienced ever before because she was dumb and foolish in what she thought was love. Instead she had been in a relationship with someone who had manipulated her, gaslighting her at every chance he got. Eventually he must’ve gotten bored of the relationship because just before their junior year, he broke up with her, not without ultimately stringing her along for another month or so after that. No one knew just how bad that relationship had been—she had been too embarrassed to say just how bad it was—but she had confided in Jade about a few of the things that had happened. That was part of the reason why she had become super close with Jade, and ultimately Inez, because they both helped her out of a rough part of her life. 

But now as she stood there—with everyone else that had come with Jade—in awkward silence, some of her more repressed memories resurfaced, especially with how everyone was looking at her. And maybe, Josie mused to herself, Landon had been right when he had said that everyone she loved would walk out on her someday, just like he had. It made sense, after all, with everything going on between her parents; her father was walking out of her life. She was thankful when Jed called out to them.

“Are you guys going to get your asses over here? Or are you making your own pack of people over there?”

“Jed! Shut up, we’ll be there in a second,” Hope yelled back, focusing her attention back on Josie as she apologized, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up any touchy subjects.”

“It’s all good,” Josie answered, “It’s ancient history. We just weren’t meant to be is all.” She ignored the concerned gaze Jade shot her way, instead turning to walk towards where everyone else was waiting for them. She tried not to think about the fact that Penelope hadn’t said anything, instead the shorter girl had just stared at her with a questioning look on her face, a face that made Josie think Penelope wanted to ask more questions. Questions she didn’t know if she would’ve been ready to answer.

Instead of dwelling on it, she forced a smile onto her face as she got closer to everyone else greeting them with, “Hey guys! What’s up?” 

“Just talking about how it’s about time you guys decided to show up,” MG answered as everyone finally was all together.

“And that’s all on me,” Jade said, taking the nonexistent blame that was being thrown around.

“I’m grateful for you just getting here honestly,” Alyssa voiced, “The line was ridiculously long when we first pulled up, but now it’s shorter. You did us a favor.”

“Well then let’s go get some ice cream,” Hope suggested, gesturing towards the small building where people were waiting in line.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Kym announced, the first to start walking towards the building, Maya not far behind her.

Everyone else followed suit, following after Kym and Maya, Josie soon to follow before Penelope stopped her by placing a gentle hand around her wrist when she started to walk away. Turning back, she was met by what she perceived as an almost nervous Penelope.

Clearing her throat, Penelope quietly said, “I just wanted to apologize for bringing up your ex. And I wanted to know if you’re okay.”

“It’s fine,” Josie answered through gritted teeth as she tried not to get dragged too far back into her dark thoughts, “As I said, it’s ancient history, nothing to be worried about.”

For a second it looked like Penelope was going to drop it, but then she pushed the matter further, catching Josie off guard.

“You didn’t look fine when you finished talking about him. You looked, well, sad, but it was more than that. You also looked like you had remembered something horrible and then there’s the fact that you got tense as soon as Jade and Inez looked at you, so I guess I was just trying to make sure you were sure you were fine.”

As Penelope spoke, Josie managed to regain her composure from being caught off guard by the continuation of this conversation, firing back with, “You’re reading too much into it. I’m fine, just drop it.”

And with that, Josie shook Penelope’s hand off her wrist, turning on her heel and walking to get in line, leaving behind Penelope for a second time that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really gave josie commitment issues huh. i'm just gonna leave this here though: a lot of what i include in some of my stories are things i have gone through or am going through. writers write about what they know about. so josie's issues may reflect some of mine, although some things have been changed. and that may be oversharing, but i think it's important to bring light to the fact that what i write about is entirely plausible. i live for the plausibility of what happens, the idea of how true to real life it is. with that being said, i am splitting this chapter up because i hit the end of what is written here and decided it was just easier to cut the ice cream adventure into two chapters. i'm not sure whose perspective i will write through for the next chapter, however, so that's still up in the air. as always, you can find me on twitter @razzspie where you can catch me talking about a variety of things. that's all, stay safe everyone!!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is for all you posies who are still out there. it's been a while. i hope you enjoy. and i apologize for any typos. i briefly glanced over this for some but i always miss at least one, so yeah. enjoy!

Penelope watched as Josie walked away, a frown forming on her face as she followed after Josie, a few steps behind her. There was something Josie was hiding, that much she was sure of. Josie’s entire body posture had expressed as much when discussing Landon. Sure, it probably was none of her business—in fact she knew it wasn’t any of her business—but she couldn’t help but feel anger towards this Landon kid. Penelope was certain if she ever ran into him, she would have no choice but to deck him, but she shoved that thought out of her mind as she joined up with everyone else.

Everyone was broken off into smaller groups, talking to one another, and sensing she should give Josie space, Penelope went up to Hope who was talking to Kym and Maya.

“Hey Penelope,” Kym greeted.

Maya’s greeting was much the same, “Penelope, hi!”

It was Hope who deviated from the first two, greeting Penelope in the form of a question, “You’re not talking to Josie?”

“Hope!” Kym quickly scolded, “Don’t meddle in her lo-, I mean personal life.”

“Yeah,” Maya jumped to Kym’s defense, “What Kym said.”

“Thank you,” Penelope directed towards Maya and Kym, trying not to think about what it was Kym was about to say, instead focusing her attention on her response to Hope, “Plus, is it wrong to want to spend time with you, Hope?”

“Well no,” Hope began, “but-”

“But nothing,” Penelope interjected, “I’m allowed to interact with who I want to.” Penelope could see that it looked like Hope had a comeback ready to go, so Penelope glared at her, hoping to stop whatever it was Hope was going to say.

Fortunately, it seemed to have worked, because all Hope said was, “Okay then. We were in the middle of talking about an economics assignment if you had any input on that.”

“Hope, she’s not even in the class,” Maya remarked, “So unless she’s an economics whiz, I doubt she can help.”

“Maya would be corrected with that statement,” Penelope confirmed, “I’m not really interested in knowing how supply and demand work. I’m more into literature and languages.” A few seconds went by before Penelope added, “And maybe history, but that stems from my love of historical literary works.”

Kym perked up at the mention of history, her surprise evident in her response, “You didn’t strike me as the kind of person who liked history. It’s my favorite subject.”

“Consider it mild curiosity,” Penelope answered, “But I’m always down to talk about history with you. We could even talk about how the American education system teaches history so poorly in high schools in order to push the narrative they want students to hear as opposed to what truly happened.”

“Please do not get her started on that,” Maya sighed, “She will not shut up about it if you do. And as much as I love when she gets on a tangent about it, an ice cream outing is not the time for it.”

“I agree with Maya that getting ice cream is not the time to talk about the horrors of the American education system,” Hope inputted, glancing ahead at the line, “Oh shit. Guys, all our friends are ordering. This is what happens when you talk about kinda boring subjects on a fun outing.”

Penelope rolled her eyes at Hope, “We get it Mikaelson. You really want some ice cream.” 

Penelope’s remark garnered chuckles from both Maya and Kym, causing Hope to just scowl at them before she walked up to the window to order, the other three following right behind.

Deciding to be the last one to order, Penelope looked around at the place they were at while everyone else ordered. The place really was in a secluded area, save for the restaurant about one hundred feet up the road and the softball field complex across the street. It genuinely was the perfect place to have a tiny ice cream place like this, Penelope concluded.

When it was finally her turn to order, Penelope walked up to the window and ordered a small peanut butter cone. It was while she was getting her change that she made a split second decision to ask a question.

“Hey, when do you guys offer blueberry ice cream next?”

The girl behind the window glanced at a sheet of paper that was in the building before answering, “Two weeks from now.”

“Thanks,” Penelope answered, taking her change and stepping to the side to wait for her cone to be ready, which came out moments later. Taking her cone, Penelope walked over to the two picnic tables that had been commandeered by everyone else in the group.

There were two places open that she could sit at: beside Jed and Kaleb, or on the end by Josie. A part of Penelope knew she should probably still give Josie some space, but, regardless, she found herself sitting down beside Josie, offering a small smile to the brunette who kept her expression neutral.

Different conversations were going on all across the table, but Josie didn’t seem to be taking part in any of them. Instead, Penelope observed, Josie just seemed to be poking at her dish of ice cream with her spoon.

Penelope could only assume that Josie’s behavior stemmed from the conversation from earlier, but she didn’t know how to broach the topic, much less actually receive an answer. So instead, Penelope looked around the tables to see if anyone else seemed to notice Josie’s behavior, making brief eye contact with both Jade and Inez who seemed to be looking at Josie with worry in their eyes. Both girls just nodded at Penelope, and Penelope had no idea how to interpret that look, but she ended up interpreting it as a nudge to talk to Josie, which she proceeded to do.

“Hey Jojo. I take it you don’t like your ice cream?”

Penelope frowned at how Josie tensed at her voice, but nevertheless, Josie answered her, even if it was somewhat strained.

“I’m just not hungry, that’s all.”

“Ah, I see,” Penelope answered, trying to figure out how to keep the conversation going, “Neither am I. Eating pizza before we came was a grave mistake.”

Josie finally seemed to relax, which Penelope was thankful for, and looked up at Penelope as she answered, “Yeah, I guess so.”

Penelope could hear how distant Josie’s voice sounded, and it hurt to know that Josie seemed to be in a negative head-space, so Penelope decided to suggest something, “How about we take our ice cream and take a walk to go look at the creek that’s behind us?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea Penelope,” Josie quietly responded, looking back down at her ice cream again.

“Nonsense,” Penelope began, standing up with her ice cream, “Guys, Josie is going to go show me the creek that’s behind here. We’ll be right back.”

Both Jade and Inez gave her nods of approval, Jade being the one to speak for everyone at the table.

“Have fun! Don’t fall in though. I really don’t want to have to deal with you being covered in creek water in my car.”

“Noted,” Penelope nodded, waiting for Josie to reluctantly stand up with her ice cream in tow, “You know where to find us if we’re not back before you’re ready to leave.”

Penelope ignored the curious look Hope was giving her, instead turning away to start walking towards the creek, Josie half a step behind her.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the table, however, Josie let her annoyance out, “What part of this wasn’t a good idea didn’t you get?”

For a few seconds Penelope didn’t respond, too taken aback by Josie’s hostility, but she quickly found her composure in order to answer, her voice soft and genuine in her response, “I know you said to drop it, and I’m going to. It’s not my place to ask about things you don’t want to talk about. But that doesn’t mean I can just ignore when you’re in a bad place mentally. That would go against the friend code.”

“The friend code?” Josie questioned, annoyance temporarily gone from her voice.

“Oh, it’s just some general rules I’ve always lived by,” Penelope admitted, “Ways to be a good friend and how to know when to be there for friends. I’ve critiqued it over the years, so by now it’s a really good system.”

“And this system told you that you needed to ignore the fact that I said I was fine?” Josie questioned once more, except this time the annoyance was back in her voice, verging on the premise of anger.

Penelope didn’t say anything at first as they continued walking, but as they neared the creek, she finally answered, “You were lying when you said that. And hey, maybe I really wanted to learn about this creek, you don’t know.”

“I do know that you’re right about me lying,” Josie remarked, her tone guarded, “And I know that you’re lying about wanting to learn about this dumb body of water.”

“Touche,” Penelope commented, before turning serious once again, “You don’t have to tell me what’s bothering you. I just want you to know that I’m here for you. You’re one of my closest friends, and I know this is going to sound scandalous, but I care about you. Seeing how just the mere mention of someone can hurt you so much, it makes me want to find him and knock him out.”

When Josie didn’t say anything at first, Penelope looked over at her and saw that Josie seemed to be clenching her jaw as she mulled over what Penelope had said. Penelope decided not to say anything else, instead deciding to let Josie figure out whatever it was she wanted to say as they reached where the creek was, Penelope sitting down on the grass, Josie slowly following suit.

“This is my favorite ice cream place to visit, and it’s forever tainted by him,” Josie eventually began, her voice pained, “He still works here too.”

Josie quickly clarified her sentence, “Not tonight though. He’s not working tonight.”

Silence settled over the two girls after that for a few minutes before Josie started speaking again.

“I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t hurt just a little bit to be here, but I can’t let him dictate my life and where I can and can’t go, especially since we aren’t together anymore. It’s been over a year, but certain parts of the relationship still haunt me and impact me. I just wish I could go back in time and not date him. Life would be so much easier if I hadn’t.”

Seeing this as a place to speak, Penelope remarked, “I don’t know what all he did or said to you, but you didn’t deserve it. No one deserves to have to bear invisible scars from a relationship that was horrible to them. It sucks that the actions of others can haunt us for so long, causing us to doubt who we are as a person, but you just have to stay true to who you are. And I know it’s easier said than done, but don’t let him get inside your head. He sounds like a dick, and you, Josie Saltzman, deserve so much better than that.”

“No one knows the full extent as to everything he did,” Josie quietly uttered, not acknowledging everything else Penelope had said just yet, “Jade and Inez know a little bit, but the rest I kept to myself, especially things he said.”

“That’s understandable,” Penelope responded, “But keeping things to yourself doesn’t always end well, and that holds especially true when you convince yourself that what he said was right. I can tell you right now that not a single thing he said to you was true. You are more than the words of some dickhead that thought he was able to micromanage your life.”

“You don’t even know what he said though,” Josie countered, this time her tone filled with sadness, “And even if you did, it wouldn’t change anything. You can’t undo what he’s said and done.”

Frowning as she realized just how much Josie seemed to be haunted by her past relationship, Penelope set her quickly melting ice cream down on the grass beside her and wrapped her right arm around Josie, “You’re right that I can’t change the past, but I could disprove anything he said to you that made you doubt yourself.”

At first, Josie tensed at the embrace, but ultimately relaxed after a few moments. Penelope glanced at Josie who seemed to be debating with herself, waiting for the brunette to say something. That was the thing, Penelope didn’t want to rush Josie into saying anything she wasn’t ready to say, but she also didn’t want Josie to keep beating herself up over it. 

“Are you sure about that?” Josie finally asked, her head turned to look at Penelope.

“Most definitely,” Penelope assured, wondering just what it was Josie was about to unload on her.

“Alright. I never told Jade or Inez this one,” Josie began, her voice shaky, “But in the midst of a lot of the horrible things he said to me as he broke up with me, he made sure to tell me that everyone I loved would walk out on me just like him. And it’s true, because look at what my dad is doing, he’s leaving.”

Penelope thought this over, deciding how she wanted to answer, while also trying to bury the rage that burned inside her at just how horrible Landon had been to Josie. Eventually, she responded, “First off, what he said to you was absolutely shitty, and you didn’t deserve to have your emotions fucked with like that. Secondly, what’s going on with your parents has nothing to do with you. He’s not leaving you. He’s still going to be there for you. No one you love is going to walk out on you. If they did, they would be insane to do so, and I can guarantee that they never truly loved you then. You have so much love to offer the world Jojo, don’t let him take that away from you.”

Pausing, Penelope debated whether to keep talking, ultimately continuing on with her train of thought, “It sounds like you’re still healing from his abuse, but you are healing. That’s what matters. Sure, as we sit here, it probably doesn’t feel like it, but you are. Being able to open up about it just shows how strong you are. You didn’t let what he said cripple you. You still come here to get ice cream, which is like a giant middle finger to him. Healing is by no means linear. You can have great steps forward, but then have great steps back. What matters is that you keep trying to obtain more steps forward than steps back. You are doing your best, and that’s all you can do. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.”

A laugh escaped Josie, much to Penelope’s surprise, but Josie quickly explained, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, but just the entire concept of how you could barely say one word to me at the start of the school year to now where you’re giving me an entire monologue of advice is just funny to me. I know it shouldn’t be because we’re talking about something serious, so once again I’m sorry.”

“Hey, I’m just glad to see your mood improve,” Penelope reckoned, “And if my complete one-eighty in terms of character development does the trick, so be it.”

“Well it does,” Josie affirmed before turning serious, “What you said, though, it means a lot to me. I never thought about it that way; I just always thought that he was right and I guess I started to buy into it. As for coming here being a middle finger to him, that’s the best interpretation I’ve heard, and it makes sense. It probably annoys him to no end to see me come out here with friends and be happy without him.”

“It probably does,” Penelope reassured, “One thing people who gaslight others hate to see is the person they gaslighted be happy. So I think that means you should try to live the happiest life you can. It’s the most powerful thing you can do.”

“You’re right,” Josie replied, her voice finally sounding a little bit more upbeat, “Don’t think you’re off the hook yet though. I haven’t given you a hard time for admitting you care about me yet.”

“Which is something you don’t have to do,” Penelope reasoned, a blush beginning to form on her face as Josie threw her words back at her.”

Josie didn’t have a chance to respond as her phone buzzed. 

Penelope glanced over to see that Josie had received a text from Jade, “Time to go already?”

“Just about,” Josie answered as she typed back a response to Jade before observing, “We never did eat our ice cream.”

“Then that just means we’ll have to come back another time,” Penelope postulated, already forming a plan in her mind to come back in two weeks for blueberry ice cream, “It’s nice here, primarily by this creek. It’s quite serene if I do say so myself.”

Josie just nodded before removing herself from the embrace Penelope had had her in, “I’ve never really been back here except for maybe once.”

“If that one time was awful, then pretend I never said anything,” Penelope amended as she stood up, offering a hand out to Josie, “Shall we head back?”

“We probably should,” Josie said, taking Penelope’s hand and standing up, “And my one time back here wasn’t awful. I had seen a stray cat and had followed it back here to catch it. Kym and Kaleb ended up taking him in. They named him Elliott I think.”

“That is adorable,” Penelope gushed about Josie as she started to walk back to where everyone was, still holding Josie’s hand, not even realizing she still was holding it since Josie was walking along beside her.

“Yeah,” Josie voiced, “They even dress him up and include him on their Christmas Card, which Kaleb and Kym just had to show us last year.”

Penelope frowned at the fact that Josie thought she had been talking about the cat, but she was also thankful that Josie hadn’t caught on, because she really hadn’t meant to call Josie adorable; it had just kinda slipped out. And now that she was overthinking that blunder, she now realized she was still holding Josie’s hand. So now she was overthinking that part, because it would be too awkward to let go now and she was certain Hope would never let her live it down once she noticed. It was getting to the point where she could feel her hand start to sweat, so now Josie was going to think she had clammy hands, and now Penelope was wondering when she started to care so much about whether or not Josie found her hands clammy.

“We should throw our ice cream away before we get over there,” Josie said, breaking through Penelope’s many layers of intense panic, “Otherwise they’ll probably make innuendos about what we were doing that we didn’t eat our ice cream.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Penelope stammered out, “That makes perfect sense.” If Penelope had had a free hand she knew she would be facepalming so hard, because she was acting like a buffoon, and for no good reason.

Josie let go of her hand then to walk ahead to throw her cup away, and, instantly, Penelope missed the lack of contact, but was also relieved that she wouldn’t have to deal with approaching all their friends as they held hands. 

Penelope followed a few steps behind Josie after that, taking the time to think about what all the feelings she just experienced meant, and she didn’t like what they were indicating. Her thoughts on it all didn’t stop until she reached the two picnic tables; but even then, the implications of what they could mean haunted her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this entire chapter in one night. even as i type this note it is 530 in the morning. i did what had to be done. i made josie talk about her deep rooted emotions and now penelope is struggling with some ~new~ emotions. this is just getting good :D
> 
> anyways find me on twitter @razzspie


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